Foster Children Making A Difference

Raif, Mandy, and Micah are three young adults who aged out of the foster care system who are featured in the film; From Place to Place. The documentary follows the lives of those three as they try and change the foster care system. 

Their story brings to light the issues surrounding foster kids who age out of the system with out any help. The movie follow these youths throughout two years of their lives. In this time Micah is sentenced to three years in jail, Mandy gets her GED and goes to college, and Raif struggles to find love and happiness in his life.  

Mandy and Raif are also given an opportunity to make a difference by talking to members of The Senate Caucus of Foster Youth. They are able to tell their stories about the foster care system and what it's like to age out. After their time in D.C. they embark on journey across the country speaking about their experiences to people

In 2011 more than 27,000 children aged out of the system, when children age out of the system the majority of them are left with out any future support. These children are left vulnerable to many hardships in their adult life. Nationally 54 percent of these children graduate high school and an only 2 percent of kids will go on to receive a bachelors degree. An overwhelming 51 percent of aged-out kids are unemployed. In Oregon alone there were 255 children who aged out of the system in 2009.

These children are exposed to life with out any means of support and the statistics prove just how hard of a time they have. This is why Mandy and Raif's stories are so inspiring. They are amazing examples of foster care youth who are making a difference for foster children who age-out of the system.

Are Children Unadoptable?

Children in foster care are unadoptable. They're troublemakers, unlovable, underachievers, uneducated and will never amount to anything. 

These are just some of the stereotypes that foster kids have to face everyday. These stigmas steer possible adoptive parents from looking at great kids that are currently in the foster care system. It is these stereotypes that our organizations fights against everyday in order to secure forever families for every child.  

 The Dave Thomas Foundation is another agency that is also working towards finding adoptive parents for children in foster care. 

 The foundation utilizes five main programs in order to make sure that all the "unadoptable" kids are adopted because just like the movie says "unadoptable is unacceptable." Their signature program is Wendy's wonderful kids, which has recruiters working for children throughout the U.S.A. and Canada by using aggressive practices and tactics all in the name of finding the best home for a child. Their case workers have a very small amount of cases in order to create bigger focus on the child then they would have received normally. We are proud to say that AFFEC we work closely with many of Wendy's wonderful kids recruiters to help them place children with families in our networks.


The Dave Thomas Foundation, AFFEC and many organizations across the country all share the same focus of finding forever families for all children. We believe that every child deserves to be loved no matter what age, how many siblings they have, what their GPA is, or where they came from. 


So no, there is NO such thing as an unadoptable child.