We are currently involved in a community project with a group of friends who have made a commitment to Inspire Life Skills Training, Inc. to make site improvements, acquire donations of goods, and provide financial support to enable former foster youth to become self-sufficient, responsible and to make positive life choices. Inspire Life Skills Training, Inc. is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that provides housing assistance, life skills training, and education and employment support for youth aging-out of the foster care system.

Why are these services so important? Because foster youth who are aging out of the foster care system have higher rates of being undereducated, underemployed and becoming homeless. It is startling that 65% of former foster youth end up homeless and that less than 6% attend college. These teenagers often find themselves instantly on their own with no housing or support from family or community. Without mentoring and motivation, most former foster youth find themselves homeless, pregnant, on drugs, or in jail.

Participants in the Inspire’s program live independently, participate in individual and group life skills instruction, and receive counseling, healthcare access and mentoring. All programs are designed to assist the youth in achieving their education and employment goals so they can become self-sufficient.

Over the next several months, in addition to building garden boxes and planting vegetables at several Inspire residences, gathering donations of goods like school supplies, bicycles, laptops and juicers, and taking Inspire participants on fun excursions, we are committed to raising much-needed funds for Inspire’s programs.

Your tax-deductible donation would not only help us reach our fundraising goal but also help to break the cycle of abuse and poverty and give the youth in Inspire the chance to not become a statistic.

Today, more than ever, we genuinely appreciate the responsibility we have for the welfare of our youth, the inheritors, leaders, and caretakers of our future. Thank you in advance for your generosity and your willingness to partner with us in this effort. It means a lot to us!