Imagine a world where 22,000 18 year olds roam the streets without a stable place to live? Well that world currently exists and in 2014, those 22,000 teenagers aged out of the foster care system with no place to go.  These are the statistics that are difficult to look at and with the start of National Adoption month, here at Wolverine Human Services we want to do our best to chip away at that number. In Michigan alone, there are 13,000 children in Foster Care at any given time, so our goal is to increase the number of forever families for our children.  There are many instances where family reunification is no longer an option and the search is then open to the general population. Understanding the challenges and the passion behind why a person would decide to and not decide to foster or adopt is something that we revisit daily.

The statistics are alarming but there are thousands of children who are adopted into loving families in the United States each year. 135,000 children and 59% of the children are from the child welfare system.  This shows us that organizations like ours are needed in our communities.  Every corporate and individual donation given allows us to continue to find stable families and provide them with resources as foster and adoptive parents.  During National Adoption month we want to shine a closer light on how important it is to provide stability for children before they age out of the system, and while numbers are increasing for adoptions from foreign countries, we have loving children who just need a chance to see how true love and sacrifice work, right here in our own backyard.  Spread the word, provide a donation, open your home but please don’t let this month pass without doing something to help the cause.