Our Drive to Help Friends LA

Did you know that May is Foster Care Awareness month, and that Los Angeles has the largest foster care system in the country with 30,000 kids? Their outcomes are dismal – half of all young adults who age out of foster care end up homeless or incarcerated. 75% of students in foster care perform below grade level. Young adults in foster care are more likely to become teen parents compared to their peers that were not in foster care.

One local organization, Friends of the Children – Los Angeles (Friends L.A.), seeks to break the cycle of not only foster care but poverty, too. Friends L.A. provides long-term, paid, professional mentors for children affected by foster care from kindergarten through high school graduation. At their core, they are a foster-care prevention organization – all of the parents in the program are former foster youth themselves, and their children are at risk of or have already entered the foster system. 

The families selected for Friends L.A. are born into generational cycles of poverty, disadvantage, and systems involvement. There are no short-term fixes or single programmatic approaches that work. These children and their families find themselves navigating a complex web of uncoordinated, short-term government and community programs that are focused on outputs rather than outcomes. This can be especially difficult for children and families with few tools and resources to cut through barriers created by social and economic disadvantages, limiting academic achievement and prospect for hope.

The COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated the challenges these families are already facing. Parents are out of work or have severely reduced hours. The kids, who all receive breakfast and lunch at school, won’t be returning this academic year to the classroom. Food and basic hygiene supplies are running short in their households. They are struggling more than ever.

But this isn’t all a doom-and-gloom story. The families of Friends L.A. are resilient, resourceful, and above all, hopeful. They are united in their quest for a better life for their children, and will do everything it takes to make that happen – pandemic or no pandemic. 

This is where DEUCE steps in. Our tremendous community has the power to make a difference. We’re supporting Friends L.A. two ways: the first, a drive for hygiene products – toilet paper, paper towels, and sanitizing wipes. These hygiene products will be picked up from all three locations on Wednesday, and distributed to families on Friday. The second method of support is a fundraiser – we’re aiming to raise $5,000 in support of Friends L.A. and Foster Care Awareness month. Your donation makes a direct impact on this community, and we hope you join us in our efforts to make Los Angeles a better place.

How can you help? These two ways:

1. DONATE FUNDS.
2. Drop of hygiene products at our drive at your local DEUCE location  Wednesday (Time TBD)

Chessa Donaldson

@chessa_l_d

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