Our featured cause for June is an organization close to home for IBG, The Alliance for Children’s Rights. Did you know over a quarter of children living in LA are impoverised? Did you know LA has the highest number of children in foster care in the whole country? Did you know that without assistance, less than 3% of “aged out” foster care kids will attend college? The Alliance for Children’s Rights works to protect the rights of LA County’s underprivileged and abused youths so they have safe homes, access to health care, and the opportunity for education. Founded in 1992, they have provided assistance to over 100,000 children in LA County to date.
The Alliance has several different programs pertaining to youths in foster care including assisting with foster care adoptions, legal guardianship, health care, public benefits, and Youth Aging Out. The Youth Aging Out program is similar to another charity IBG has been privileged to work with in the past, SA-YES. Every year, not just in Africa but also in our own backyards, so many children “age out” of the foster care system and are left unequipped to handle the harsh realities of adult life. In LA alone, around 1,500 children find themselves in this situation every year. Alliance’s NextSTEP Program helps guide these children through the challenging transtition from foster care to impending adulthood. NextSTEP assists them with overwhelming legal issues such as sealing juvenile court records, signing leases for apartments, and handling tickets. They also offer workshops which teach skills for everyday living and becoming stronger self-advocates.
The Alliance has a dedicated staff devoted to implementing these programs and also has a prolific network of pro bono attorneys who work with individual children’s cases as well as broader policy reforms. To learn more about The Alliance for Children’s Rights or if you’re interested in volunteering, please click here: http://kids-alliance.org/
