Who We Are
Who We Serve and Why
The Alliance for Children’s Rights advocates for thousands of clients each year—including abused, neglected, and vulnerable children and teens in the foster care system, runaway and emancipating youth, children who need guardians, and the families who step up to care for them.
In Los Angeles County:
There are nearly
18,000 children in foster care
- 47% of all children in foster care in California reside in Los Angeles County.
- 18% of California children living in poverty are in Los Angeles County.
- 3,335 of these children are awaiting adoptive families.
3 in 10 victims of child maltreatment have been victims before.
Only 68.5% of young people in foster care graduate from high school.
Only 10% graduate from college.
Only 20% of students in foster care are proficient in English language arts.
Only 11% are proficient in math.
Transition Age Youth:
Half of all young adults who age out of foster care
experience poverty, homelessness, or incarceration.
50% of young men aging out of foster care have become fathers, compared to 19% of their peers who were not in foster care.
Teen girls in foster care are 2.5 times more likely to become pregnant by age 19.
33% of young women in foster care report having at least one child by age 21, compared to only 24% of their peers who are not in foster care.
Every story is different, but each child we help is healing from hardship.
With pro bono partners, the Alliance provides legal representation, supportive services, and policy solutions to help children and young adults access the nurturing conditions they deserve and need to thrive.
Our Impact
In the past year alone:
We finalized over
500+ adoptions
We served 112 child victims of sex trafficking.
We advocated to ensure that over
70 children
ages 0-5 accessed critical early intervention services
750 families
received benefits and healthcare for children in foster care
Our attorneys advocated for educational services for more than
500 students in foster care
Spearheaded by the Alliance, the OYC collaborated with 130 partners working to ensure youth can access education, training, and meaningful employment through a holistic approach to stability.
We supported nearly 1,000 young people transitioning from foster care to adulthood, providing legal advocacy, guidance, and life skills training to help them build stable, independent futures
Our Achievements
- Since 1992, we have served more than 175,000 children.
- Since the inception of our adoption program over twenty years ago, nearly 17,000 adoptions from foster care have been finalized.
- To date, more than 9,700 school-age children have received educational services to overcome trauma, instability, disability, and developmental delays.
- The Alliance has written and sponsored bills that have changed foster care for the better in California, including AB12, extending foster care to age 21.
- For ten consecutive years, the Alliance has received Charity Navigator’s highest four-star rating, a distinction granted to just 2% of charities.
Thanks to generous support from the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation, the Alliance is also able to partner with the American Indian and Alaskan Native community to better care for American Indian children in foster care.
