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FOSTER CARE HANDED THEM A SCRIPT. THEY’RE REWRITING IT.

May is National Foster Care Awareness Month. This year, we’re observing it with a focus on our youth whose lives have been shaped by foster care — and the slow, uneven work of finding a way forward.

Foster care is meant to be a safety net. For some youth, it ends in reunification; for others, in adoption. For far too many, it ends when they age out of the system at 18 without a plan or a place to call home, statistically more likely to experience homelessness, mental health challenges, incarceration, unemployment and lifelong instability.

Whatever the exit point, the work of healing rarely ends when a case file closes.

Foster care hands young people a script. The ending seems inevitable, but it’s theirs to write. At Immerse, they find tools — including trauma therapy, one-on-one coaching, life skills training, transitional housing and transformational experiences — to begin healing and rewriting their stories so they can enter adulthood resilient and ready for life. 

The rewriting begins here. Give today — help us put a pen in the hand of more youth from care across our state.

MAKE YOUR GIFT TODAY!

foster care statistics

    • Up to 30% of youth who age out of care experience homelessness during the transition to adulthood.

    • Youth in foster care are likely to miss twice the amount of school as their general population peers; one in three students in care has repeated a grade.

    • By 26, youth who age out of foster care have 50% lower earnings and 20% lower employment rates compared to their general population peers with comparable education levels.

    • Among youth who exited foster care at 17 or later, more than 30% had spent time in a correctional or detention facility by 17; more than 40% were incarcerated by 20.

    • Former foster children are three times more likely to die by suicide.

    • Statewide, there are 3,417 youth (0-21) in the Arkansas foster care system.

    • *There are 1,807 approved foster homes available; this includes provisional, therapeutic and fictive kin foster homes.

    • In 2025, most youth in foster care experienced more than two placements a year. This means their living arrangements changed every 187 days, just a few days longer than an Arkansas school year. For teens 14-17, the number increased to one move every 138 days — about the length of a regular high-school basketball season.

    • In 2025, there were 1706 youth ages 14-21 in foster care, which means about one-third of Arkansas’ foster care system will be adults during the next five years. Each young person who exits care without a plan or a support system will need an average of $300,000 in public assistance during their lifetime.


      *As of March 2026

This month, you can help a youth from foster care rewrite their script.

Abuse and neglect too often leave lasting scars on youth in foster care. Since Immerse launched in 2010, hundreds of volunteers, mentors, donors and specialized staff have stood alongside our youth as they pursue healing, growth and transformation — rewriting their stories, rebuilding their families and helping the next generation reimagine what’s possible.

Hear Stefan, an Immerse alum, describe the work in his own words below.

 
 
 

Your gift could go twice as far to fuel transformation for youth from care!

Thanks to the generosity of Immerse partners, a matching fund has been established to help us build a broad, reliable pathway to healing available to even more youth from crisis across Arkansas — including those in and around the state’s foster care system.

If you’ve never given to Immerse, haven’t given in more than a year or make a new multi-year pledge in 2026, your contribution will be matched dollar for dollar.

This means your gift would instantly have twice the power to fuel the vital work of equipping youth from foster care to rewrite their stories, begin healing and enter adulthood resilient and ready for life.

During Foster Care Awareness Month, please consider a donation beyond your regular support to help equip our young people to transform from crisis to overcoming.

Donate Via Apple Pay

Every time you give to Immerse, you invest in a future immersed in hope. Thank you for your partnership.

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