Vanessa Diffenbaugh Quotes

The problem is foster youth don't really have this network that other kids have.

At Camellia Network, we believe if we can create a way of identifying every young person aging out of foster care, defining what they need, and giving a community of supporters a simple and clear way to fulfill those needs, we can produce radically improved outcomes for youth.

Be in no doubt: we are completely committed to make sure we support young people with the additional resources that are necessary to give them the alternatives to the offer that's put forward by the terrible criminals on the streets.

We all make mistakes, and we all need second chances. For youth in foster care, these mistakes are often purposeful - if not consciously so; a way to test the strength of a bond and establish trust in a new parent.

I've never had very high regard for therapists. I owe my health, my mental survival, to my friends and loved ones.

Everyone just talks about the problems our teenage girls are facing and what they're dealing with. But there was, to me, a void in how they were being served or helped. I thought, 'Wow, I'd love to create something.'

Faced with stress, too many people feel they have nowhere to turn to, that they don't have access to the kind of friendships or communities where they can easily and openly share their problems and worries.

I have the goal of getting together 30 or 40 poor kids and bringing them to live with me.

I was 16 when I entered the foster system, and know firsthand the statistics for 'aging out.'

We must all work together to end youth homelessness in America.

Young people often aren't in a position to write checks to charities. But there are two things they can do that are invaluable. One is volunteering, especially mentoring other young people with reading, math or help thinking about college. Through iMentor, one can even mentor people online.

State and local government, with financial support from the federal government, should offer a program to educate and train foster children for employment and provide them with financial assistance, as needed, until they reach age 21.

Though politics is by nature divisive, surely we all can agree that foster children need stability, safety, education, opportunity - and love.

I am not looking for people to be more kind to the homeless; I want to put an end to homelessness.

Young people must sieze the fortress of science if they want to truly replace the old guard.

I founded Homeboy Industries in 1988 after I buried my first young person killed in our streets because of gang violence.

My dream is to get the young people off the streets, to make it possible for them to play football in the stadium instead.

Yazidis have gone through traumatic experiences, and without education, there is no future for the youth.

We see organizations that target young black men to give them direction in life, but so often, black girls are missed. I wanted to represent them.

Something we learned from foster kids after sitting down with them to hear their stories is that so many of them are invested in social justice, and they're all invested in making the system better for the kids behind them.

For young people in the U.K. who find themselves without anywhere to live - perhaps they have left the family home after a relationship breakdown, or to escape abuse, or have left care - it is far too easy to become trapped in a chain of misfortune, with little help from the state.

The main reason I started The Katie Piper Foundation was because I had treatment abroad that I wanted other burns survivors in this country to have access to.

If you ask for good schools, you aren't likely to get them. If you ask for jobs or economic investment, you won't get that either. But what we have learned, is that the one thing that poor folks of color can ask for and get are Police & Prisons.

I was lucky. I always had really great friends in my personal life, people always just knew who I was. It wasn't until I was in show business where that sort of changed or shifted at first. I have always had a great support network. I have had a lot of really wonderful, close friends.

Of all the means to insure happiness throughout the whole life, by far the most important is the acquisition of friends.