Los Angeles and Houston

The Weekend Miracles program connects older kids and teens with mentors, host families, or adoptive families. In Los Angeles, we served 80 kids throughout the year, and 59% of our active participants have been connected to potential forever families or mentors.

In Houston, 61 kids were served and 49% of active participants have been connected. Each kid who comes through our program has a voice and a choice in which adults they get to know.

The Summer/Winter Miracles program brings older orphans from Colombia –where reunification and adoption efforts have been exhausted in their home country—to the U.S. to stay with hosts to meet potential forever families. For many of the kids in this program, it’s their last chance at finding a family. And it works!

In the summer of 2023, 41 kids participated in our Summer program and 28 of those kids now have a family moving forward for adoption. Six kids are arriving soon to participate in our Winter program.

Since 2016, Kidsave’s Ukraine program has been helping orphaned youth find support and family. When the war broke out, our team immediately shifted to rescuing those in the path of the war and delivering humanitarian aid. To date, we have rescued over 30,000 children and families and delivered more than two tons of vital supplies. Our commitment has never wavered. This year, 187 teens participated in our Pathway to Success program.

While adoptions are paused Kidsave continues to move kids out of crowded orphanages, this year we moved 137 kids into family homes in Ukraine.

This year in Sierra Leone, we have placed 115 kids in families.

One of these kids was Margaret Adu, who was only three years old when her parents died of Ebola. After 9 years in an orphanage, we reunified Margaret with her older sister Sarah and her aunt.

Like her younger sister, Sarah had spent years in an orphanage after their parents’ death. “Life in the orphanage was not easy,” she said. “We eat, but it was not always enough. I felt good when I learnt there was someone from my family who was ready to parent me. Thank you Kidsave for bringing happiness into my life!”

In 2023, Kidsave initiated the EMBRACE Project: Expanding Meaningful Black Relationships And Creating Equity. Black youth are overrepresented in foster care and underrepresented in rates of adoption in the U.S. and we decided to find out why.

EMBRACE is a multi-year, research-driven initiative to bridge the racial gaps within the child welfare system, and to create a future in which more Black youth can thrive.