Together We Rise

Foster Love is a nationwide 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming the way youth navigate through the foster care system. Foster Love was born in 2008 after founder Danny Mendoza discovered his 9-year-old cousin was living in a car. Due to DCFS’s policies limiting care provision for adults under the age of 21, Danny’s attempts to provide relief to his cousin were consistently stymied. This experience caused Danny to gain a rapid awareness of the harsh realities that foster youth in America face. Instead of giving up, Danny decided to dedicate himself fully to improving the lives of children like his cousin who are navigating the foster care system. Danny’s vision became a reality as Foster Love was born. Since then, Foster Love has grown into one of the nation’s largest volunteer engagement organizations, enabling individuals everywhere to create a meaningful impact on the lives of foster youth.

Nearly every individual on Foster Love's board, leadership team, and junior staff has a deep connection to the foster care system. Some of us are former foster youth while others have grown up alongside foster siblings, become foster parents, or dedicated our careers to foster care. These collective life experiences equip us with a distinct insight into the challenges of navigating the system, enabling us to deliver trauma-informed, compassionate services to a population that frequently feels overlooked or marginalized.

American foster youth continue to sit at the intersection of most of our country’s major social problems: Homelessness, poverty, human trafficking, food insecurity, addiction, mass incarceration, environmental injustice, and more. Youth in care are four times more likely to be diagnosed with a learning disorder and seven times more likely to suffer from anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Despite the fact that almost 100% of high school foster youth report dreams of graduating from college, only 50% will graduate with a high school diploma. Of that small number, only 3% will go on to graduate from college. Upon aging out, one out of every five foster youth will become instantly homeless. Within 18 months, 50% will be homeless and/or incarcerated. Tragically, 60% of the children and young adults who have fallen victim to human trafficking are former foster youth.

The mission of Foster Love is to transform the way youth navigate through the foster care system in America. By collaborating with a vast network of volunteers, social workers, agencies, individuals, foundations, and corporations, Foster Love has been able to change the lives of a record-breaking number of current and former foster youth. This is accomplished through the provision of critical resources, services, and support including, but not limited to, the following:

Life-enriching resources: These include bicycles, skateboards, Birthday Boxes, Superhero Boxes, and our renowned Sweet Cases. Sweet Cases are brand-new duffle bags filled with comfort items and basic necessities designed to replace the trash bags traditionally provided to children in foster care. These thoughtfully curated resources improve the emotional and physical health of vulnerable youth during a traumatic time in their journey.

Academic and educational resources: These include Foster Love’s special Back 2 School Packs, innovative STEM Boxes, three comprehensive full-tuition scholarship programs, mentorship, workforce entry support, professional development, and emergency financial assistance for at-risk students.

Life-changing annual events and programs: These special initiatives include our well-known sibling reunification events, nationwide teen shopping sprees, feeding families campaigns, Socktober, adoption celebrations, holiday initiatives, and more.

In addition to providing high-risk foster youth with access to these transformative resources, Foster Love remains engaged in advocacy efforts to enact positive systemic changes. Through robust social media awareness campaigns, informative speaking engagements, and collaboration with policymakers, Foster Love works to ensure the voices of those with lived experiences remain centered in conversations about child welfare reform.