Tommy DobczykOpportunity Zone Advisor, OZ Wizard · Director of Development | Certified Opportunity Zone Advisor

Foster Care: Your Belongings, One Trash Bag, Then YOU'RE OUT! #shorts

24 Feb 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:53

When foster youth turn 18 without being adopted, they get a trash bag for their belongings and are released from the system. About 80% of homeless people were once in foster care. One nonprofit partners with churches and adoption agencies to find permanent families before that happens.

Chapters

Their 18th birthday, if they haven't been adopted and they age out of the foster care system, what happens is they experience black trash bag day, meaning on their 18th birthday, they are handed a black trash bag, told to put all their belongings in it, and then they're out. So if you understand that 80% of the people who are actually homeless came out of the foster care system. And so what does that mean now? Drugs, prostitution, trafficked, which is a huge epidemic, and incarcerated, costing taxpayers billions more. So my nonprofit focuses on partnering with churches and these specialized adoption agencies to be able to get the word out and get them fully funded, to be able to help families find, get connected to these right children so that they can create their own families with these children.