Imagine applying for your first job, graduating from high school, or celebrating your 18th birthday without a safe, stable home to call your own. For the 23,000 youth who age out of foster care each year in the United States, this is their reality. These youth face difficult odds:
- 20% will be homeless instantly upon emancipation from foster care^
- 50% will struggle with addiction+
- 71% of young women become pregnant by age 21*
- 2% will graduate from a 4-year college*
- 25% will become involved with the criminal justice system within 2 years of leaving care*
The future can be brighter for children in foster care. With your help, we can end the cycle of abuse and neglect. The Adoption Exchange finds loving, stable families for youth in foster care, helping them to change their futures.
Derrik’s Story
Jason and Courter have been a couple since 2003 and hoped that someday they would be parents. In 2016 they decided to start exploring their options. A year later they learned about Derrik via the Colorado Heart Gallery, a collaborative project of The Adoption Exchange and the Colorado Department of Human Services. The Heart Gallery is both a resource for potential parents and an opportunity for participating youth to showcase who they are and what they are seeking in a potential family.
Jason saw Derrik’s profile, took a screenshot, and sent Courter a text message: “I think we found our son.”
“I think so, too,” replied Courter.
Derrik was 11 years old and was working with an Intensive Recruiter at The Adoption Exchange. Youth served by an Intensive Recruiter are up to three times more likely to be adopted than those without. Derrik worked with his recruiter, caseworker, and team to connect with Jason and Courter, and they began to develop a relationship and take steps toward becoming a family.
Derrik’s adoption was finalized in 2018, and soon after he gave his new dads a poem sharing how much he wanted to “repay” them someday for adopting him. Of course, Jason and Courter feel that they are the lucky ones. “We hope that every day of love and safety in his forever family brings him closer to believing that children should never have to repay the families who love and protect them,” they said.
“We especially want to thank The Adoption Exchange for helping us find our son,” Jason added. “We need to specifically share our appreciation for Lyndsey, Derrik’s recruiter from The Adoption Exchange. Without her, we may never have been matched with him.”
“There are about 140,000 kids in the foster system available to be adopted and up to 20% are LGBTQ. We hope that by sharing our story other families — in all their glorious diversity — will adopt an older child.”
— Jason & Courter
Your support allows The Adoption Exchange to give youth like Derrik the intensive family-finding and support that they deserve, making them three times more likely to be adopted than youth who do not receive these services.
The Adoption Exchange stands by Derrik, Jason, and Courter – and all of the youth and families we serve – with the support and care to make sure those connections last a lifetime.
^ Data from a study published by the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative (2013)
+ Data from a major study by Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago and Partners for Our Children at the University of Washington (2012)
* Data from a national survey by Child Trends (2017)