Connect Our Kids have announced their mission to use advanced technology to find families for foster children, with the help of their fellow Americans, by launching the Give BIG America™ campaign.
More than 400,000 U.S. children are in the foster care system. Each year, over 20,000 age-out. By age 26, two-thirds of foster kids will have experienced homelessness, incarceration, or will have been dead. “These numbers are unacceptable. Foster kids are trapped in an archaic process,” said Dr. Jennifer Jacobs, Co-founder and CEO at Connect Our Kids. Dr. Jacobs recently presented the new technology approach to the prestigious White House Fellows organization in Washington, D.C.
Connect Our Kids, a privately funded non-profit organization, is working on developing a vital technology tool needed for those in the trenches of our nation’s foster care system to use in finding families for foster kids. In an effort to disrupt the current system, Connect Our Kids will give this tool to social workers, with no intention of selling it for a profit.
The Give BIG America™ campaign is a grassroots effort designed to raise awareness around the broken foster care system all while raising funds to support the development of the technology tool. The project is being rolled out by over 24 Give BIG America™ Ambassadors, including Hollywood producer and actress, Annika Marks, and highly regarded media producer, Spencer Proffer.
The Give BIG America™ campaign is also collecting in-kind donations for six partner organizations that work directly with over 3,000 foster children.