FosterClub

FosterClub is the national network for young people in foster care.
Today there are over half a million children in foster care. Most youth who have been in foster care report feeling alone, isolated, and stigmatized. The mission of FosterClub is to connect, inform, inspire, and empower the voice of young people in foster care through a national network that is built for youth, powered by youth, and designed to transform their experiences into positive change for themselves and others.
About
FosterClub's mission is to lead the efforts of young people in and from foster care to become connected, informed, inspired and represented so they can realize their personal potential and contribute to better outcomes for their peers.
FosterClub Connects. FosterClub’s pinwheel logo is an enduring symbol of a happy, carefree childhood, something all children deserve. However, young people living in foster care have had their childhood interrupted by abuse and neglect.
FosterClub’s peer support network gives youth in foster care a new spin on life by providing information, benefits, encouragement, and hope. With more than 11,000 youth members nationwide and over 15,000 visitors to its Web sites each week, FosterClub is uniquely capable of providing young people in foster care with an opportunity to gain support from their contemporaries across the nation.
FosterClub.com is a primary communication tool for youth. This Web site provides a hub of foster care related information, including articles, questions and answers, message boards, contests, discussions of foster care topics, and biographies of well-known people who grew up in care. It is a resource available to youth whenever - and wherever - they need it.
FosterClub is not just an important resource and connecting tool for youth, but for adults as well. The organization currently has 27,000 registered members. A separate FosterClub Web site, FosterClub.org, serves adults who care for foster children. On this site, caseworkers, independent living providers, advocates for children and youth, and foster parents find resources, tools, and articles that will inspire productive and creative ways to work and communicate with foster youth of all ages.
FosterClub Informs. Across the nation, FosterClub provides young people who have experienced foster care with the knowledge they need to promote success and involvement. FosterClub facilitates training events including teen conferences and workshops tailored to the needs of youth in foster care that reach more than 3,000 young people annually. This training, along with assistance in content development, helps amplify the voices of young people, whether they are advocating on their own behalf, through concern for siblings or family members, or speaking out on behalf of their peers currently in foster care.
FosterClub conferences, workshops, and training have opened an important avenue for youth to become actively involved in their life plan as they approach adulthood. Teen participants receive tool kits, tips, and straight talk to deal with the myriad challenges they face. Young people form friendships and share success stories with former foster youth recently transitioned out of care. FosterClub event packages contain planning, logistical support, outreach and registration, workshop and activity facilitation, and evaluation materials.
FosterClub publications are developed specifically for, and written in collaboration with, youth in foster care. Getting Solid is designed to help youth play an active role in securing their own permanency plan. Permanency Pact encourages life-long, kin-like connections between a young person and a supportive adult.
FosterClub Inspires. FosterClub was established with the guiding principal that self-advocacy, access to information and youth involvement are critical to youth well-being in, and outside of, foster care. FosterClub works to develop youth leaders, creates peer mentoring opportunities, and builds hope and motivation among its members.
Each year, at least 12 young people who have experienced foster care are selected as FosterClub All-Stars. The All-Stars are given intensive leadership training and are dispatched in teams to foster care-related events across the country, where they inspire and educate their peers, raise public awareness, and work on issues of importance both to them personally and to young people in foster care across the nation.
FosterClub Empowers. Child abuse ranks number one in social concerns among teens in the United States. FosterClub is uniquely positioned to promote the perspective of youth and to empower the voices of young people in advocating for improved care for abused and neglected children and in effecting change within the foster care system.
FosterClub All-Star members receive extensive training in public speaking and understand how to elevate their own compelling foster care stories into action items to bring about positive change. All-Stars have been invited to testify before Congress and are regularly sought out for press interviews on foster care-related news stories. Editorial articles authored by FosterClub members have appeared in influential newspapers and have informed child welfare policy debates across the country. High visibility FosterClub events in Washington D.C. draw the attention of national decision-makers to foster care issues and emphasize the need for foster care reform.
FosterClub’s national public awareness campaigns provide a framework for young people to increase public awareness in their own communities and fight the stigma too often associated with foster care. Campaigns generally revolve around the stories of young people who have emerged from foster care to find success. Campaign materials feature an individual’s photograph alongside personal information such as "Valedictorian, Snowboarder, Public Speaker…and a foster kid."

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