It was clear that America had forgotten its foster children and the statistics reflected that neglect. They were appalling - 78 percent became single parents; 40 percent were arrested; and over 25 percent of all prisoners in the United States were raised in the foster care system. An education was the key to breaking the cycle of dependency on welfare that often typifies the lives of former foster children.
In 2001, CharityWorks and The Orphan Foundation of American partnered to make post secondary education and training a possibility
for some of the 25,000 youth that “age out” of foster care each year. The partnership raised over $600,000 to provide four-year
college scholarships to 24 local foster youth. Eileen McCaffrey, the Director of The Orphan Foundation, said the partnership also
helped bring attention to the foster care crisis. A year later, Congress approved $60 million for scholarships to foster children.
