The Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative has created an infographic aimed at educating the public on the costs of “doing nothing” to prevent youth from aging out of foster care.
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In an op-ed in the Huffington Post, Executive Director Gary Stangler wrote, “for every young person who ages out of foster care, taxpayers and communities pay $300,000 in social costs like public assistance, incarceration, and lost wages to a community over that person’s lifetime. Do the math and you can conservatively estimate that this problem incurs almost $8 billion in social costs to the United States every year.”
This PSA from Jim Casey’s Success Beyond 18 Initiative, illustrates what happens to foster youth when they are forced to “age out.”

Jim Casey Initiative Success Beyond 18 PSA from Jim Casey Initiative on Vimeo.

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