Help Hillsides Create Safe Places for Foster Care Children

Band Together to Support National Foster Care Awareness Month

(PASADENA, CA) Today, over 513,000 children and teens are residing in foster care nationwide. Hillsides, a foster care children’s charity serving Los Angeles County for 95 years, has created safe places for over 35,000 children throughout the years.

Twenty years ago, then Senator Strom Thurmond introduced a resolution proclaiming May as National Foster Care Month. Foster Care Awareness Month serves as a way to connect caring adults to children who deserve brighter futures. This month also raises awareness of foster care issues that impact so many children with little to no support.

Currently 23,000 children are in foster care in Los Angeles County and these children range in age as well as race, ethnicity and culture.

“Foster care children need a safe and healthy environment to grow up in just like any other youth,” said John Hitchcock, Hillsides executive director. “Hillsides is committed to creating safe places for these children and teens and getting them the resources they need to become successful adults.”

Nationwide child welfare advocates are currently doing what they can to bring about a change in the foster care system. But without continued assistance from wonderful supporters, donors and volunteers of children’s charities, these foster care children will get lost in the system.

According to FosterCareMonth.org if nothing changes by the year 2020:
• Nearly 14 million children will be confirmed as victims of child abuse and neglect;
• 22,500 children will die of abuse or neglect, most before their fifth birthday;
• 9,000,000 more children will experience the foster care system;
• More than 300,000 children will age out of the foster care system, most with inadequate support to build successful adult lives; and
• 99,000 former foster care youth, who have aged out of the system, can expect to experience homelessness.

During the month of May, Hillsides, the Pasadena children’s charity, will participate in the Band Together campaign to encourage volunteers and supporters to wear a blue band around their index finger in an effort to improve the lives of those in foster care and fight child abuse and neglect.

“We encourage everyone to wear blue, a blue band, or a blue ribbon to show their support in this significant way,” said Laura Kelso, Hillsides director of community resources. “By supporting the Band Together campaign, we are raising public awareness of the issues that affect the children we serve.”

To learn more about the Pasadena foster care children’s charity, visit www.Hillsides.org or to find out more on the Band Together campaign, visit www.bandtogether.org.

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About Hillsides: As a Pasadena charity founded in 1913, Hillsides creates safe places for children in foster care living in its residential treatment center and is a community treatment center preventing the cycle of abuse for children at risk and their families. To learn more about Hillsides, visit www.Hillsides.org.

Marisol Barrios-Jordan, Hillsides
Work: (323) 254-2274 ext. 274
Cell: (310) 713-8567
E-mail: mbarriosjordan@hillsides.org

Foster Care Children's Charity

This release was published on openPR.