The New York Times:  Opinion

Choose a Gift That Changes Lives

Educate a girl. Send a young person to college. Restore a person’s sight.

By Nicholas Kristof

Opinion Columnist

Nov. 21, 2020

(Excerpt follows.  For the full article click here:  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/21/opinion/sunday/charitable-holiday-gift-guide.html )

My other volunteer recommendation is Court Appointed Special Advocates, or CASA, which supports foster youth in nearly every county in the country. I recommend CASA because America’s foster care system is broken, and our 400,000 foster kids need help.

Only 58 percent of foster kids graduate from high school by age 19, and one-fifth are homeless within a year and a half of turning 18 and aging out of the system. By the age of 26, a majority of these young women and men have been arrested.

We can’t fix foster care overnight, but we can help these neglected kids negotiate a sometimes uncaring system — and that’s what CASA does. Volunteers provide support and advocacy for children who sometimes have no one else to trust, while helping them navigate the bureaucracy.

You can volunteer for Reading Partners or CASA through the same website, KristofImpact.org.