Recognizing the nonprofit Half A Million Kids to bring awareness to children living in the Foster Care system and ways Philadelphia can work collaboratively to help find permanent homes for foster kids.

WHEREAS, There are an estimated 500,000 U.S. children in the Foster Care system, with 25% being eligible for adoption. There are roughly 2,300 foster children eligible for adoption in the greater Philadelphia region alone; and

WHEREAS, Agencies do not work collaboratively for collective impact to help find permanent homes for foster kids. Families might begin at one agency and do all the screenings and paperwork only to have to start all over at another agency; and

WHEREAS, Many individuals on the front lines of the city foster care system find themselves growing jaded. A low salary combined with working unpaid overtime gives way to high rates of worker turnover, which in turn crushes workers with higher caseloads; and

WHEREAS, While the Philadelphia budget allows CUAs to hire one social worker per 10 cases, 8/10 of these exceed 15 or more. To exacerbate the situation, the turnover rate at our CUAs averaged 45% in the summer of 2022. Child advocates caution that, amidst foster care tragedies, long-standing workforce problems must be addressed, or the system will continue to fail our children; and

WHEREAS, Half A Million Kids, a nonprofit organization dedicated to foster and trafficked children, have a mission and a plan to place every foster child eligible for adoption into a permanent home; and

WHEREAS, Statistics show that over 20,000 foster children go missing a year and 50% of kids that do age out of the Foster Care system end up homeless, incarcerated, substance use disordered, and/or government dependent; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That Philadelphia recognize ways we can work collaboratively with Half A Million Kids to help find permanent homes for foster kids.

End