Why do we need your help?

Each year, over 500,000 children in the United States are thrust into court through no fault of their own.

Some are victims of violence, psychological torment or sexual abuse. Others have been neglected or even abandoned by their own parents. Most of them are frightened and confused.

Often these children also become victims of this country’s overburdened child welfare system–a complex legal network of lawyers, social workers and judges who frequently are too overburdened to give thorough, detailed attention to each child who comes before them.

The consequences can be severe.

A nine year old boy is discovered in a Kentucky foster home so malnourished he weighs only 17 pounds. A child dies in a state-licensed “temporary care” shelter, where seven children have been sharing one bedroom for more than a year. An 18 year-old boy moves out of his seventh New York foster home, unable to read, write, or care for himself as an adult.