Raise the Future has a simple but powerful goal: ensure each young person has at least one caring adult they can count on. It doesn’t seem like much, but accomplishing that goal makes a measurable difference to children aged 14-21, who often struggle as they age out of the state’s foster system. 

About 1,500 children in Utah fall into this category, but Raise the Future, a nonprofit focused on finding permanent homes for youth, provides support through family services and community engagement. 

“The kids we work with are not just passing through the foster care system, they are growing up there. They are transitioning from home to home. We can have kids who have been in foster care for 12 years and have been through 22 different homes,” said Raise the Future Vice President of Development Lindsay Kaeding. “How are they going to manage life as an adult when their life has been in turmoil and transition for so long?”

Raise the Future, originally called the Adoption Exchange, was founded in 1983 in Denver, Colorado, and expanded to Utah in 1986. It addresses the challenges faced by children moving out of the foster care system, including homelessness, a lack of higher education, mental health issues, addiction, a gap in life skills, an increased risk of trafficking and the likelihood of creating generational foster care, where their own children end up in the system.

Matching youth with caring mentors, guardians or adoptive parents can make the difference between a lifetime of success or obstacles. 

“If you want to talk about homelessness, mental health services, drug addiction and everything like that, you’ve got to focus on the most vulnerable population, and that is youth in foster care,” Kaeding said. “They end up within our criminal systems. So they are just transferring from one system to the next.”

Lives are changed once a caring adult steps into the picture, letting these kids know they don’t have to navigate the world alone. Kaeding said once youth in foster care know they have someone willing to show up for them, maybe help them stay in school or find a job, they begin to believe they can achieve goals and live a meaningful life.

Shawn Davis and her husband, Matt Affolter, have adopted two daughters through Raise the Future. Ellie was 19 when they adopted her in 2017. She’d been through multiple foster homes and struggled with mental health issues. It was difficult at first to establish trust, boundaries and respect on both sides.

“A lot of people struggle because they want the kids to fit into their life but you’re talking about kids who haven’t had support, who’ve dealt with a lot of trauma, who haven’t been raised the same way. Teenagers, especially, have their own lives,” Davis said. “It’s more about fitting into their life and building that trust, and then making some of those smaller changes.”

Their second daughter, Ramona, was 18 when she came to live with the family in 2023. She had placed herself into foster care but had poor experiences in several foster homes. Davis expected to foster her until she graduated from high school, but Ramona was adopted into their family this year.

“It makes a difference because they have people to talk to, people who have their best interests,” Davis said. “It gives them the confidence to try things and know there’s a safety net. Life’s a little harder if you have no safety net to try new things.”

Raise the Future serves hundreds of youth, providing families with resources and education, but the waiting list is growing. Kaeding said about 200 youth age out of the foster care system each year in Utah and the organization is doing its best to reach as many of those kids as possible. 

There are several ways to help, including volunteer opportunities for long-term mentors, donating school supplies and providing Christmas gifts for kids in foster care. The option to become adoptive parents is always on the table and Raise the Future creates communities for these families, giving them the support they need for success. For more information, visit Raisethefuture.org.

“It only takes one person to show up for you in your life, to absolutely change the direction that you’re going,” Kaeding said. “If we all rallied together, we could prevent so many kids from aging out of the foster care system. Not only that, we can end that cycle and create healthy people and healthy communities.” λ