• Nearly 500,000 youth are in the foster care system in the United States and 50,000 reside in California.
• Foster Care Youth age out of the system between age 18 and 21 depending on the state they live in.
• 20% of the youth transitioning out of foster care system are immediately homeless and nearly 50% are homeless within 18 months.
• 50% of the foster youth do not graduate from high school and less than 3% earn a college degree.
• 50% of former foster youth have an annual income of less than $6000.
• Nearly 70% of girls who leave the foster care system become pregnant by age 21.
• Nearly 70% of all state prison inmates were once in the foster care system.

HOW WE HELP

• Volunteers teach foster youth the Skillz4Life curriculum which is designed to help equip and prepare the youth for independent living as they age-out of the foster care system.
• Skillz4Life workshops are held monthly at Orangewood Children’s Foundation.  After eight consecutive years, nearly 4000 youth have attended and have received dinner, homemade desserts, gender specific toiletry items, along with life skills training.
• The Gospel is shared, educational and employment guidance is provided, and ongoing personal mentoring and accountability occurs with some of the youth.

• Approximately 300,000 American children are trafficked for sex within the United States each year.
• Approximately 80% of the sex-trafficked victims come from the foster care system.
• The average age range of these victims is 11 to 14.
• Nearly 80% of the transactions for sex with these children begins on the Internet.

How can we not help? We can and we will! And you can too – By supporting and helping through us!

HOW WE HELP

• Financially support two local homes for trafficked girls to escape from “the life” and receive the multi-year therapy and assistance  necessary to learn to survive and thrive in their new life!
• Co-sponsored a newly created and specially designed (by formally trafficked victims) interrogation room used by local law-enforcement officials when they interview girls arrested for prostitution who are victims, not criminals.
• Financially support and co-sponsor a formally sex-trafficked child who works with governmental agencies and law enforcement officials – educating and training each on how to effectively help children of sex trafficking who are victims, not criminals.
• Financially support educational and transportation needs for girls who become ready and are able to transition to their new lives (necessary supplies, monetary scholarships, and donated vehicles). Personal life mentoring and Christ-centered spiritual shepherding also occurs in some cases.

“For over eight years Maximum Impact has provided safety and resources for our American born children being sex-trafficked in our communities. They have helped us rescue them from a life of slavery, they have provided funds for them to heal and grow, and they have helped create a platform so that survivors can train law enforcement, educators, community members, and most important teach children who are at risk of becoming trafficked themselves.”
Jim Carson, OC Safe Homes Board Member, Sex-Trafficking Expert and Trainer

Skillz 4 Life is in its eighth consecutive year of coming alongside, and presently serving some of the youth represented by these heart-wrenching statistics. Highlights of some of our ongoing activities and financial support include: 

• Monthly life skills workshops are held at Orangewood Children’s Foundation and designed to help prepare for us to use who are aging out of the foster care system to become successfully independent. Nearly 4000 youth have attended these workshops to date where they received dinner, homemade desserts, gender-specific toiletry items, and life skills training.
• Sharing of the gospel, providing educational and employment guidance and support, along with ongoing personal mentoring and accountability occur with some of the youth.