Every year in Wisconsin, thousands of children will enter foster care. And there aren't nearly enough foster parents to go around.
Adoption Resources of Wisconsin and the non-profit firm Serve Marketing have teamed up to launch a campaign called "Turn a Life Around." It's centered in the idea that foster parents give children new opportunities, literally turning their lives upside down.
To highlight the need for foster care, the two agencies organized flash mobs in Milwaukee at UWM and Marquette, as well as other college campuses across the state. Teams of volunteers wore special t-shirs which read "turn a life around" in upside down letters.
Mobs of volunteers did handstands on the sidewalk. As seen above, one person held the ankles of the other, and in this inverted position, only then could people read the t-shirts.
May is national Foster Care Awareness month, but the need for new foster parents is year-round. And foster care is different than adoption.
It is designed as a temporary solution. Foster parents keep children safe so the child's birth parents can sort out volitile situations at home without further damaging a child. In many cases, the children are reunited with their birth parents; however, in other situations the foster parents may adopt the child. No case is the same.
But there is one thing uniting each case: the children need stability. They need good foster parents.
If you're interested in becoming a foster parent, you can download all the info you need to get started here.
For the audio version of this story, click the player below.
