For children and young people who experience foster care, abuse, neglect or family instability, having a safe place to live is only the beginning. Each year, approximately 20,000 young people in the U.S. age out of foster care, often without the family safety net many of their peers rely on. Nearly 30% experience homelessness by age 23 or 24, underscoring the importance of continued support as young people move toward independence.
Across Florida’s Tampa Bay region, Children’s Home Network, Ready for Life and Fostering Hope Florida provide that support at different stages—helping children, young adults and families find stability, develop essential skills and build stronger futures.
Children’s Home Network: Strengthening Children and Families
Children’s Home Network provides a broad range of services from early childhood through adolescence, reaching more than 6,700 children and family members last year.
At Kid’s Village, children ages 6–17 who have experienced abuse or neglect receive residential care in a safe, supportive environment. The organization also recruits and supports foster families, assists relatives caring for children through its Kinship program, and provides behavioral health, education, mentoring and family support.
Programs such as SEEDS help young children prepare for success in school, while Healthy Families Pinellas supports expectant and new parents facing stressful circumstances. Together, these programs recognize that strengthening a child often means strengthening the family around them.
Ready for Life: Creating a Bridge to Independence
For young people leaving foster care, adulthood can bring immediate challenges—from finding housing and employment to continuing their education and managing everyday expenses.
Ready for Life helps young adults formerly in foster care in Pinellas and Pasco counties make that transition. Its Skill Center provides food, clothing, hygiene supplies, laundry and shower facilities, transportation assistance and help obtaining important documents.
Young adults can also receive support with education, employment, budgeting, health care and other practical life skills, along with mentoring and individualized guidance. The goal is not simply to meet immediate needs, but to help young people build lasting independence.
Fostering Hope Florida: Creating Stability for Children in Foster Care
For more than 20 years, Fostering Hope Florida has supported children in foster care and foster families throughout the greater Tampa Bay area. The organization works to create a more compassionate foster care system by meeting urgent needs, supporting and recruiting foster families, advocating for children and helping provide the stability every child deserves.
One of its signature initiatives is Hope Houses, which provide rent-free homes to foster parents caring for children, with a particular focus on keeping siblings together and reducing the disruption of moving from one foster home to another. Fostering Hope Florida also operates Kidz Closets, providing foster families with donated clothing, toys, baby items, toiletries and other essentials—helping children who may enter care with very few belongings feel supported from the start.
How You Can Help
There are many ways to support young people and the organizations serving them:
- Donate needed items, such as clothing, personal care products, school supplies and household essentials.
- Volunteer at events, organize donations, mentor young people or share your professional skills.
- Open doors to employment through career guidance, job shadowing, internships or job opportunities.
- Give financially to help provide housing, counseling, education, transportation and other essential services.
- Spread the word so young people and families who need these resources know where to find them.
Find an Organization in Your Community
While we’ve highlighted three Florida organizations, similar organizations serve children and young adults in communities throughout North America. Look for one in your community and consider how you can help. Whether you give your time, skills, resources or financial support, your involvement can remind a young person that their community is invested in their future.
More Than a Safety Net
Children and young adults facing difficult circumstances need more than help getting through the moment. They need safe places to heal, dependable relationships, opportunities to learn and people who believe in what their future can hold.
Children’s Home Network, Ready for Life and Brookwood Florida are providing that foundation—helping young people move beyond difficult circumstances toward stability, independence and brighter futures.