Educational disparities plague children in foster care and hinder their ability to lead independent, self-sufficient lives—so we are providing academic mentorship to optimize resilience and well-being.
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More than 437,000 children are in the US foster care system on any given day and only 50 percent of them will finish high school by age 18.
To ameliorate this achievement gap, The Foster Connection is tailoring instruction to meet the individual needs of every foster student and creating a positive culture of expectations with regard to educational success.
With The Foster Connection’s steady guidance and support, foster youth will develop increased vocational self-efficacy and a stronger incentive to attain higher education.
The issue
For far too long, youth in foster care have faced barriers to academic achievement. School mobility, trauma due to abuse and neglect, and lack of stable relationships are only a few of the factors that have contributed to their persistent underperformance and have made them distinctly vulnerable to criminal incarceration, homelessness, and human trafficking.
Turnover in the child welfare system has now reached an all-time high. No longer can we stand by and rely on the institutions in charge to take appropriate remedial action. Especially, when we already possess the most powerful personal development tools—education, technology, and social networks—to help propel the foster care system out of the 19th century, and into the 21st.
Here’s the scale of the problem:
Mentorship can change these dismal outcomes.

Data from Civic Enterprises & Hart Research Associates (2014)
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What will this look like?
