What is the Christmas Box Lifestart Initiative?
A. The Christmas Box Lifestart Initiative is a four-phase plan to help every youth that ages out of foster care in America. The plan includes providing youths with Christmas Box Lifestart Kits which contains items needed for them to start their own homes. Other phases include invovling the community through volunteer groups (Christmas Box Clubs), support of mentoring programs, and providing an information resource line for youth to help them find needed resources.
Each year over 24,000 youths age out of the foster care system in America. These are teens that were never adopted or able to return to the homes they were removed from due to abuse, neglect and abandonment. Many of these youth leave foster care as young as 18 years old. They are faced with almost insurmountable challenges as they try to navigate the difficulties of adulthood, including incarceration, substance abuse, teen pregnancy, mental illness, poverty, homelessness and suicide. With no one to help them, many of them return to abusive situations or end up homeless on the streets. The Christmas Box International has come up with a 4-phase plan to involve the community in helping these youths. You can help right now by joining Operation Kids in support of the Christmas Box Lifestart Initiative. Read more about the four-phase plan here…
