Catherine Bell grew up in foster care and founded the Bell Community Empowerment Foundation after learning what happens to kids aging out at 18. Youth who leave the system face higher rates of incarceration, trafficking, and drug use, costing taxpayers billions.
So for me, it was, why isn't somebody doing something about the children in the foster care system? Meaning that what happens is children in the foster care system, if they grow up through the foster care system on their eight and they're not adopted on their 18th birthday, they experience what's called black trash bag day. Meaning on their 18th birthday, they're handed a black trash bag and they're told to put all their belongings in it, and they're out on the streets. Oh, my goodness. So statistically, what happens to these kids is they end up on drugs, incarcerated, prostitution, and trafficked. Statistically so. And I kept asking, why isn't somebody doing something about that? Because me growing up inside of so many homes, I mean, it's a horrible experience. But once I was adopted, it literally changed my life forever, even at 16. And so because of that, I got really clear about my purposes. So I created a nonprofit called Bell Community Empowerment Foundation. And what we do is. Here's what I love, is that. That if we just look at the numbers to keep these kids in foster care, it's costing taxpayers billions of dollars on the front end, then on the back end. If they age out of the foster care system and they haven't been, it's costing taxpayers billions more to deal with the drugs, incarceration, prostitution, trafficking.
