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Staten Island has the lowest number of foster families in all five boroughs. There are many middle-class children being sent off Staten Island for foster care due to drug abuse. There are approximately 500 children in foster care on Staten Island. In order to support foster families and encourage new ones, we have started a Springs of Love ministry.

There is a direct correlation between children in foster care and:

HUMAN TRAFFICKING: 70% of human trafficking victims in the U.S. spent time in foster care. 

INCARCERATION: In several states, 65% of inmates aged out of foster care.

HOMELESSNESS: There are currently 2 million 18-24-year-olds living homeless in the U.S., many of whom spent time in foster care. In Staten island, 165 children were placed in foster care in 2022 (out of a total of 2,700 in NYC, of which, 500 “aged out” of care in 2022).

PREGNANCY WITHIN A YEAR: 71% of young women become pregnant within one year of aging out of foster care

Statistics from https://springsoflove.org/fostering-love/

Want to do something today?

1. Email us to join our Community Care Teams in supporting vulnerable families by providing a monthly meal, possibly providing transportation assistance, or taking part in outings, etc. Scroll down to bottom of this page for more information on our care teams.
2. Subscribe to Springs of Love Monthly Newsletter HERE See below where we were highlighted in the December Springs of love newsletter!
3. Material Assistance can be provided to vulnerable families by joining the Care Portal. Care Portal gives timely alerts of needed items on Staten Island and beyond to help struggling families in need. Sometimes there are donors, but volunteers are also needed to deliver items that others donate. Care Portal Information HERE!
4. Become a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) – •CASA Advocates CASA-NYC’s mission is to ensure that young people involved in the NYC child welfare system have their needs met and rights protected, and that children in foster care are moved quickly into safe, stable, nurturing and permanent homes – with their families of origin whenever possible. Family Court judges assign CASA to assist with the most complex cases. They work to provide individualized attention to each child, ensuring needs are addressed and helping them navigate the maze of the NYC foster care system Home – CASA | NYCOURTS.GOV Books: Misplaced Childhood – BOOK | JoanUlsher.com One Child at a Time: The Mission of a… book by Yolanda Bryant I Speak for This Child: True Stories of… book by Gay Courter
5. Watch this video – How We Transformed the Foster Care System In Our Community – Tedx by Ray Deck III We would love to help create this kind of place on Staten Island!
6. Join the Center for the Rights of Abused Children – a growing national protection network providing legal services to children in crisis! https://www.thecenterforchildren.org/
7. Subscribe to the Foster Care Institute’s newsletter here https://www.drjohndegarmofostercare.com/ & check out Dr. John DeGarmo’s Ted Talk
8. Foster Families in need can contact us at the email above as well as the Adoptive & Foster Family Coalition of New York – AAFC NY for free resources such as counseling services, caregiver support groups and much more!

Join Our care teams!

The desire to nourish, to bring forth, is strong in us women. The other night I had a dream. I am fifty, but I thought I had a little baby and was nursing it. And then I was amazed that I had not only the one but a little Negro baby to foster…and I had great joy that I could nurse a foster child of those most numerous of the oppressed in our own country.

Dorothy Day, 1949 (By Little and By Little p. 101)