The Every Child Deserves a Family Act is a federal bill to eliminate discrimination in foster care and adoption based on gender identity, sexual orientation, or marital status.
In one of the rooms in our new Reading Center we're showcasing inspirational and motivational quotes in a mural. As I read the quotes I realize the words are as much for me as they are for the teens. Maybe you'll agree -- we'd be moving mountains much faster if we all believed these words...
Sadly, many people have a preconceived idea that kids are abandoned because something is wrong with them. A common response to meeting children in foster care is, "They are so sweet! How could anyone abandon them?'
Our Literacy Program's goal is focused on lifelong learning and upon making a positive impact on the growth of our student readers. To this end we're making plans to fill our space with thousands of children pre-K through teenagers.
Young people are told that the sky is the limit, but not everyone has the same opportunities. Some youth have to overcome the trauma of neglect. Some have had physical, sexual and emotional abuse. There's a major contradiction for children in this society, and as a foster care alumnus, I know it all too well.
I will always be the King of Rock, but I only got there because of the people who believed in me. Each and every day that I have the privilege of spending with these children is inspiring. I see a piece of myself in all of them.
Feeling connected to the children we serve is so important to all of us. In every box of pajamas and books we send to group homes and shelters we include a sheet called Pajama Program's Kids Blog sheet.
Lisa Godbold never gave up hope that she would one day reunite with her foster child. And after nearly two decades, she’ll get to call the now 32-ye...
In the fall of 1998, Judy Cockerton's husband handed her a newspaper article about a 5-month-old boy in foster care who had been kidnapped right from ...
Pajama Program began 12 years ago with a simple purpose: to give children in need a book to read at bedtime and new pajamas to comfort them through the night.
Fifty percent of the nation’s more than 400,000 foster kids won’t graduate from high school under the current system and nearly 94 percent of thos...
A sad lesson we have learned over our 11 years is that too often, children in foster care have little that they can call their own. We have been working to help change that sad fact, even just a little.
This is the seventeenth post of "30 Adoption Portraits in 30 Days," a series designed to give a voice to people with widely varying experiences, inclu...
Happy New Year! I thought a refreshing yet comforting way to ring in the New Year would be to share some insights we've received from the children we see at Pajama Program about why pajamas are great!
Our hearts will embrace our children forever. Every day their faces give us the strength to move forward to help them together.
The Heart Gallery is an exhibit of photos featuring LA foster youth that highlights the need to find adoptive families for waiting children. As someone who spent more than a year in foster care, at first I felt conflicted about the concept of taking pictures of foster kids for public display.
Soon we'll be able to read with 3,000 children in need each year. These are exciting times with increasing support and new plans coming into fruition. But growth mode is scary too.
If you have yet to think of adoption, please take this holiday season to remind yourself of what family means to you and how good it would feel to offer those same blessings to a child in need.
Letters and notes from the children we serve have guided me to five answers, especially where our teens are concerned: Listen. Don't judge. Hear their call for help. Take a step toward, not away, from them. Never forget them.
Thanksgiving is around the corner and I believe its sentiment has arrived early.
Sometimes I am sure I see a spark in a child's eye when he's on line with his classmates to put his gifts on the bus that tells me he gets it -- it's about helping someone else, not just once, but in the days and years to come.
I have many times had friends of the family say to me how wonderful it was that my parents took Kevin in, and it was. But our family's payoff from having Kevin as our brother and son and loving uncle to all our nieces and nephews was far, far greater than what we gave.
There are those jarring moments in life when reality sets in. Moments like the realization that not everyone is lining up to take in every little boy.
I no longer yearn for those pot of gold gifts I wanted when I was younger - a jaguar to drive and a fancy house to live in. I am grateful for my pajamas and books just as much as the little boy in the letter is. And I know giving is the real gift.
In an ideal world, no young person would ever experience trauma. But until that happens, let's make sure that all young people have the support necessary to rewire and recover. They deserve nothing less.
