On Tuesday, Feb. 9, the Orphan Foundation of America (OFA) was going to hold its annual Congressional event that joins together Members of Congress, foster youth, foster youth advocates and others to celebrate the potential of foster youth. In addition, OFA was going to launch its Foster Care to Success program, a new, national volunteer movement that will connect caring volunteers across America to foster youth in their communities and help these young people learn essential life skills.

Due to the weather in D.C., the Tuesday, Feb. 9 event has been canceled.

More details on the Foster Care to Success program and how groups of people can get involved will be available after March 1. In April, which is National Volunteer Month, groups of volunteers will be engaged and pursuing activities that will make a difference in so many young people’s lives.

For One Lost Boy, There’s No Place Like Home – Featured in the Huffington Post

The call came around 7 p.m. on a languid July evening as I was settling in with a good book and a big glass of iced tea. My teenage daughter was at a sleepover and the Friday evening stretched ahead quiet and uneventful. And then an Arlington County, Virginia social worker was on the other end of the line, gently pressuring me to provide emergency foster care for a seven-year-old boy who had abruptly been removed from his family because of signs of abuse. It was Friday evening, after all, getting late, and the child needed a place to sleep. It was only for the weekend as a more permanent placement was sought, one that could provide the specialized therapeutic care he needed. He was currently at a hospital being evaluated, no one knew if he’d been fed dinner, it was getting late…

OFA supporter, strategic consultant and foster parent Tamar Abrams wrote this moving piece for The Huffington Post. Read the heart wrenching story of this little boy’s plight into foster care.

Orphan Foundation aims to help more Susan Zaghlools
By Mark Curnutte • mcurnutte@enquirer.com

Last year, the Orphan Foundation of America gave out $15 million in scholarships for post-secondary education.

Susan Zaghlool – who grew up in a group home in Cincinnati’s toughest neighborhood, Over-the-Rhine – received $5,000 to help her get through her fourth and final year of pharmacy school.

(Susan with Marshall and Barbara Grimes of Vienna, Va., who funded a scholarship for Susan Zaghlool, celebrate graduation May 31 from pharmacy school in Erie, Pa.)

Now 26 and fielding six-figure job offers, Zaghlool is exactly the type of student that the Sterling, Va.,-based organization wants to help.

“She is a wonderful example of foster care to success,” said Eileen McCaffrey, the foundation’s executive director. “Her goal is to give back. She is confident enough to know she has something to give back.”

Zaghlool is studying for the Ohio state pharmacy exam in early August.

She wants to return to Greater Cincinnati and wants to donate to Hearne House, her home for almost two years.

She graduated May 31 with a doctorate in pharmacy from Lake Erie College’s School of Pharmacy in Erie, Pa.

The foundation provided $20,000 through her sponsors, Barbara and Marshall Grimes of Vienna, Va.

“These young people have a lot of student loans,” Barbara Grimes said.

READ the entire article in the Cincinnati Enquirer here.

Learn how you can help another deserving youth like Susan move from Foster Care to Success here!

For many teenagers who are in foster care or have just aged out of the system, college is a daunting prospect. OFA is committed to moving teens from foster care to success and in North and South Carolina, The Summer Experience at Duke University is one way we do it.

The Summer Experience is a four-day camp at The Children’s Home that offers the students all sorts of skills. There are workshops on time management, motivation and financial literacy, as well as visits to Forsyth Technical Community College and Winston-Salem State University.

The Summer Experience is featured in today’s Winston-Salem Journal newspaper. Read the entire story here.

OFA Executive Director Eileen McCaffrey teamed with Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) to talk about mentoring foster youth.

Our government does many things well, but raising children is not one of them. Every child deserves to grow up in a loving home with parents who serve as solid role models, but we know that for some the situation is very different. Each year over a half-million children are taken from their biological parents and placed in foster care. That does not mean that they automatically blend into a new family and can be forgotten by the rest of us. Fully 20 percent — mostly vulnerable adolescents — live in group homes or institutions, and of those who are placed with foster families, nearly half are uprooted and moved up to four times while in care of the state.

Read the entire article here.