Where would they be? Startling statistics about young men in foster care.

I’m currently reading Orphan Justice by Johnny Carr.  Johnny and his wife had internationally adopted two children.  After the adoption of one of their children, a friend of Johnny’s asked him a simple question.  What would’ve happened to her if she hadn’t have been adopted?  The picture wasn’t pretty.  She could’ve had a life of poverty, disease, been taken into the sex trade, and etc. 

Although my boys are adopted from the US foster care system, I had to ask myself what would’ve happened to them if they hadn’t been adopted.  However, please don’t think this is an attempt to give myself a pat on the back for “rescuing” them.  It is not.  I am merely trying to raise some awareness of the plight of children who are in need of a loving family.  The statistics found by a 2009 study called the Midwest study are alarming. 

The study followed 732 former foster youth from Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin as they transitioned out of the foster care system and into adulthood.  For our purpose I specifically focused on the young men in the study.

• 24% of those studied had been homeless, and half of those had been homeless more than once.
• 25% of those studied did not have a high school diploma or GED, and were over 3 times more likely to not have a high school diploma or GED as those their age that had not been in care.
• 52% of the study participants were currently unemployed.
• Median earnings were a mere $8,000.00 compared $18,300.00 for their peers who had not been in care.
• Participants were over twice as likely to have experienced material hardships (not enough money to pay rent, pay a utility bill, or had been evicted).
• 61% of young men in the study had impregnated their partner.  That is over twice as high as their peers who had not been in care.
• Of those 61%, 55% said the pregnancy had been unplanned.
• 45% of the young men studied said they’d been incarcerated.

So, what could’ve happened to my boys?  Chances are good that they wouldn’t graduate high school or go off to college.  They’d have children young.  They may be unemployed, or if they are employed they could expect to make much less than their peers.  And, they’d have more than likely had a run in with the law leading to their arrest. 

We have the ability to change the statistics for these children.  There are children in foster care right now who are waiting for a loving family.  The statistics above tell the story for children who needed a family and did not get one.  Will you change the statistics for a child?