Forgotten Children Campaign - Forgotten Children Exhibit in Washington, DC

Every day, 850 children enter America’s foster care system because they cannot live safely at home. If this fact surprises you, it is probably because it is rarely reported or talked about unless a terrible tragedy occurs. In a very real sense, these children are all but forgotten.

National CASA's commitment to drawing public attention to these forgotten children compelled us to launch a dramatic exhibit in Washington, DC in May 2008. For one workweek, each day CASA staff, volunteers and supporters placed 850 life-size displays of foster children at the Washington Monument. These displays represented the 850 children who enter the foster care system each day. By the end of the week, 4,250 displays stood in front of the monument, representing the 4,250 children who entered foster care during the workweek. Each child display held a placard with a message and a call to action. A variety of messages, obtained from a national focus group study of current foster youth, were featured on the stand-up displays. Six versions of the child displays illustrated the diversity of children in foster care.

The Forgotten Children event was covered by television, print and radio media a total of 184 times before a total viewing audience of 4.8 million people.

National CASA thanks the event sponsors, donors and volunteers from the Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia CASA programs who made the Forgotten Children event a success.

Join National CASA’s Forgotten Children Campaign.