THE ISSUES

Foster Care

Many of the young people at Covenant House Florida have had involvement with the foster care or child welfare systems, meaning there was a problem of violence, abuse, neglect, or crisis in their home of origin. While a healthy foster placement might help a child come to terms with such hardships, a poor placement or an untimely aging out of the system can leave traumatic experiences unresolved.

When families are in crisis, children and youth who are removed for their protection often find a loving home with a foster family. For too many others, though, the child welfare system simply doesn’t work. They wind up in placements that are not supportive or are shuffled from home to home, and never experience the love and respect that can make or break a life. 

When these young people age out of the system at 18 or 21 years of age, they are often ill-equipped to navigate a successful path to a self-sufficient and independent adulthood. That’s precisely when they become most vulnerable — to homelessness, human trafficking, and a host of other threats and obstacles to their well-being and future happiness.

According to the U.S. Administration for Children and Families (ACF), by age 21, at least 26% of young people who aged out of foster care in the United States experienced a period or more of homelessness; a third lacked a high school diploma; and 25% had no health insurance. A quarter of these youth already had fathered or given birth to a child.

At Covenant House Florida, our trauma-informed, resilience-focused approach to our residential programs and support services meet our children and youth where systems have either left off or failed to meet their needs. We believe in our young people and provide them with the love, respect, and vital services they both deserve and need to thrive.