Each change also results in a loss of human connections that are so vital to any child’s development and adds to the child’s inability to trust. While most youth who have spent their adolescence in foster care go on to lead successful adult lives, many find the transition to adulthood traumatic. Many young adults who have aged out of foster care experience stretches of unemployment, housing instability, and homelessness. Some make unhealthy choices because they believe they have no alternative if they want a roof over their head and food on the table. They struggle to achieve self-sufficiency and stability. It is these youth that we are determined to help succeed. 

The National Association of Former Foster Care Children of America  is the fulfillment of the dream of its founder and president Louis H. Henderson. As a child growing up in foster care, Mr. Henderson saw both the commitment of many foster parents and caregivers but also the ways that some adults and programs were more interested in their own financial gain than in the well-being of the children for whom they were caring. He saw friends who went on to successful adult lives, and others who were not so successful.