Greetings – May is National Foster Care Month—a time to honor foster and kinship caregivers who open their hearts and homes to children. This month encourages us to champion policies and practices that enhance the well-being of children and youth and reinforce the support systems that caregivers and young people need. 

The Duke Endowment’s Child & Family Well-Being program area partners with public agencies and private organizations to prevent, treat and mitigate the effects of child maltreatment to improve outcomes for children and families at imminent risk of involvement or currently in the child welfare system.

*To ensure that this newsletter keeps reaching your inbox, please mark this email as "not spam."

Tamika Williams, Director  

Christina DiSalvo, Senior Program Officer  

Kate Gaskin, Senior Coordinator

View this newsletter in browser

The State of Foster Care in the Carolinas

There are more than 11,000 children in North Carolina and 3,000 children in South Carolina in the foster care system as of February 2026, with roughly 7,920 licensed foster parents in both states combined.

Recent data demonstrates, nearly 30 percent of children in foster care in the Carolinas were placed with relatives or kin, which is commonly referred to as kinship care. Foster parents and kin caregivers can experience challenges, resulting in 30-50 percent of licensed foster parents quitting each year due to a lack of consistent support, emotional burnout and system complexity. The loss of caregivers directly affects children’s outcomes and emotional and relational well-being, which are key factors in developing a sense of belonging and connection with peers and supportive adults.

What Can You Do: Join us in strengthening foster care

Continued investments in policies and practices that support foster and kinship providers, especially those that lift the voices of youth, are crucial to changing outcomes for children and families. Examples include:

• Providing training and ongoing coaching for trauma-informed care.
• Offering navigation support to help parents access services for the children in their care. For example, Epworth, Middle Tyger Community Center and HALOS are implementing Foster Kinship’s Navigator Model.
• Pairing foster parents with trained peers who can guide them through high-stress situations, support problem-solving and connect them to resources.
• Engaging youth in advocacy efforts from organizations like SaySo in North Carolina and Youth Engagement Advocates! in South Carolina. Both are youth-led associations advocating for and developing policies, programs and practices for youth and young adults impacted by the foster care system.

The Power of Child Advocacy Centers

Child advocacy centers provide coordinated services for children who have experienced physical or sexual abuse, witnessed domestic violence or suffered severe neglect. They utilize a trauma-informed multidisciplinary team model that enhances safety, supports healing and promotes long-term well-being.

North Carolina’s 54 centers served more than 12,000 children and South Carolina’s 31 centers provided services to more than 14,000 children in 2025.

Funding reductions limit access to vital, no-cost services provided by child advocacy centers, including forensic interviews, child medical examinations and mental health care. These services are critical for investigating and prosecuting child abuse cases and ensuring children and their families receive the comprehensive support needed to heal from trauma.

This video showcases the value of child advocacy centers and the state networks that support them.

Since 2003, The Endowment has supported efforts to strengthen and expand child advocacy centers across the Carolinas, including recent grants to:

• Children’s Advocacy Centers of North Carolina to strengthen the leadership and capacity of North Carolina centers to achieve greater community impact.
• South Carolina Network of Children’s Advocacy Centers to improve the statewide human trafficking response for child victims. 

What Can You Do: Join us in supporting child advocacy centers

Increased investments in child advocacy centers ensure timely, essential services for vulnerable children are provided.

In the News

• Press Release: The Administration for Children and Families Expands Prevention Services to Strengthen Families and Reduce Foster Care Entries
• Funding Opportunity: Kinship Navigator Programs: Replication and Tribal Adaptation
• Interactive Map: States Title IV-E Five-Year Prevention Plans and Approved Clearinghouse Services and Programs
• Podcast: WonkCast #24: When Policy Outruns Evidence
• Blog: Bipartisan Foster Care Modernization Legislation Advances Out of Ways and Means
• Brief: Fiscal Year 2027 President’s Budget for U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
• Toolkit: Child Welfare Technology Incubator

Please complete this brief survey to help us better understand and support your priorities.