OJJDP Grant to Expand Foster Care Reach

Friends of the Children’s drive to expand its reach to youth in foster care just got a major boost thanks to a federal grant from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP).

OJJDP announced that Friends of the Children will receive $500,000 over two years to provide salaried professional mentors to youth in foster care. The grant is the largest ever received by Friends for its foster care initiative.

Friends’ foster care initiative focuses on enrolling foster children in the Friends program in partnership with the child welfare system. Beyond working with schools to identify the children who face multiple systemic obstacles, Friends is now also selecting children directly from foster care at two of its sites.