Page 5 - OnThePath.June17

Agape House Children’s Home
gape House Children’s Because of the odds that are stacked high school
Home has both a calling and against them, foster youth are more mission to reach out to hurt- likely than the general population to ing children and show them fall into adverse circumstances. Some
Less than 3 percent will earn a college degree
they are worthy of love. We are a of the unpromising outcomes include: age 24
non-profit, group foster home serving foster children in and around Union County that are unable to live in their homes due to abuse, neglect, or other life events. We provide shelter, ref- uge, and treatment for hurting children while covering them in the same type of love – Agape Love – that our heav- enly Father has shown us. A former foster child once said, “Foster care feels like being thrown out with the trash. Dumped. Unwanted. Unloved. Ugly. Dirty. Unworthy of the air in your lungs. As though you’re taking up space meant for a person better than you. That’s foster care.”
According to the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI) and Jim Casey Youth Initiative, 74.2 million children live in the U.S. and
Male former foster youth are four 71 percent of young women will be
times as likely to commit a crime with females 10 times more likely Twenty- five percent of former foster youth experience homelessness within four years of leaving the system.
pregnant by age 21
One in four will experi-
ence Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This rate is
See AGAPE, Page 6
Only 50 percent will be employed by
Only 30.7 percent graduate from
PJ Yarbrough
402,378 of those children live in the foster care system. The average length of stay in foster care is 20 months. About 53 percent meet the goal of reunification with parents or primary caretakers.
El Dorado NEWS-TIMES – SATURDAY, JULY 29, 2017 – 5
We provide a safe home ... when home isn’t safe.
Crisis Line
1-870-862-0929 1-800-980-0929
900 E. First
Violence Intervention
Program
7590