Sources

• On any given day, there are nearly 437,000 children in foster care in the United States, with 700 kids entering the system each day. Neglect—a common symptom of poverty—is the number one reason youth end up in foster care (Source).

• There are over 125,000 children waiting to be adopted—most wait three or four years on average (Source 1; Source 2).

• It has been estimated that 60% of all child sex trafficking victims have histories in the child welfare system (Source).

• On average, for every young person who ages out of foster care, taxpayers and communities pay $300,000 in social costs over that person's lifetime, with 26,000 young people aging out every year multiplied by $300,000 per person equals $7.8 billion in total cost (Source).

• 65% of children in foster care experience seven or more school changes from elementary to high school. Foster youth lose between four and six months of educational progress with each school change (Source 1; Source 2).

• Only 56% of foster youth graduate high school while less than 3% of foster youth graduate from college (Source).

• Based on factors such as the environment, neighborhood, education and parental influence, a child’s success can be determined by a 0.6-mile radius around the home in which they grow up in (Source).

• Every 73 seconds, someone is sexually assaulted in the United States with 80 to 90% committed by someone the victim knows (Source).

• Only 3.4% of all rapes ultimately lead to a conviction of the offender with at least two-thirds of rapists in the U.S. getting away with it (Source 1; Source 2).

• As many as 200,000 rape kits sit unopened in police storage across the country and over 1,100 in Michigan alone (Source).

• The Black community comprises approximately 40% of the homeless population, 50% of the prison population, and 45% of children in the foster care system (Source).

• Almost 70% of Black families are single-parent households (Source).

• One in three adolescents in the U.S. is a victim of physical, sexual, emotional or verbal abuse from a romantic partner (Source).

• More than 40% of Black women will experience domestic violence in their lifetime (Source).

• Black women are 2.5 times more likely to be murdered by men then white women (Source).

• The average abusive relationship lasts 7 years with the survivor attempting to leave 7 times before leaving for good (Source).

• 1 in 3 women and 1 in 10 men will experience domestic violence in their lifetime (Source).

• On average, 24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner in the United States (Source).

• In the U.S., there are more than 400,000 children living in the foster care system without permanent families, with the average age being eight years old (Source).

• 40-50% of former foster youth become homeless within 18 months after leaving care (Source).

• Almost 80% of inmates incarcerated in our prisons have spent time in foster care with Black men being six times more likely to be incarcerated as white and Hispanic men (Source 1; Source 2).

• 7 out of 10 girls who age out of the foster care system will become pregnant before the age of 21 (Source).

• One out of every three Black boys born today can expect to go to prison in his lifetime, as can one of every six Latino boys—compared to one of every 17 white boys (Source).

• One in six U.S. adults live with a mental illness, equating to almost 43.8 million adults. Source

• 90% of those who die by suicide have an underlying mental illness with suicide being the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S (Source).

• 1 out of every 2 kids who age out of the foster care system will develop a substance dependence (Source).

• 52% of youth in foster care are prescribed psychiatric medication compared to 4% of youth overall (Source).

• Black children had the highest rate of suicide deaths within children ages 5-11. Suicide is ranked as the 3rd leading cause of death for Black men ages 15-24 (Source 1; Source 2).

• 63% of African Americans believe that a mental health condition is a sign of personal weakness (Source).

• Only 5.6 percent of all Black students in the United States study abroad (Source).

• Interracial couples are 10% more likely to divorce than couples who marry within their race (Source).

• 40-50% of marriages end in divorce. The leading causes are infidelity, finances, and family conflict (Source).