State spotlights foster kids

By Craig Schneider

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Gov. Sonny Perdue kicked-off the Raise Me Up campaign Wednesday, a national multimedia campaign that spotlights the challenges foster children face and urges the public to be a part of the solution.

“Mary and I have had the privilege of caring for eight foster children and that experience proved to be one the richest of our lives,” said Perdue. “But, as this campaign reminds us, you don’t have to raise a child to raise them up. You just have to raise your hand and volunteer to help.”

The campaign is a collaborative effort between Casey Family Programs, the Georgia Department of Human Services  and a host of  community partners. Casey Family Programs is the largest national foundation whose sole mission is to find permanent homes for children in foster care.

Raise Me Up is a critical component of Casey’s 2020 Strategy, which seeks to reduce the number of children in the American foster care system by half over the next 12 years and reinvest the savings to strengthen families and improve child welfare, education, employment and mental health services for children in foster care.

Television ads for the Raise Me Up campaign will premiere this month and will continue to air across the metro Atlanta area for two months. The ads highlight the challenges many foster children in America face when they are unable to find a safe, loving and permanent family.