ABOUT THE KIDS

Every year, more than 3.2 million children in America are reported as abused, abandoned or neglected. One in seven Americans are sexually abused as children. Tragically, 1,500 to 2,000 children die each year at the hands of their caretakers. And the remainder are simply (sadly) neglected or experience a combination of these abuses. Every day innocent children are forced to accept abuse as a fact of life…they are beaten, locked up, sexually abused, starved and tortured in an obscene variety of methods.

What exactly is a “Foster Child and “Foster Care”

Foster care (also known as out-of-home care) is a temporary service provided by states for these children that, for safety reasons, can no longer live with their parents.

In every case, children in the foster care system have suffered from neglect. Often they have experienced abuse (physical and/or sexual). In addition, all have experienced abandonment because their biological parents were unable, unwilling, or unfit to care for them.

IDAHO CHILDREN

According to the 2019 Health and Welfare Annual report:

There are 3111 children in the foster care each year in Idaho
About 74% of these children are reunited with their parents through the hard work of Health and welfare case workers.
The average time to permanency is 59 weeks.
In 2019 there were 297 adoptions.

Can a week at camp really make a difference it the lives of a child?

One camper told us years later that if it had not been for Royal Family Kids Camp that he would have been in prison.
We provide the children with a photo album of their time at camp. Even when they are adults and we meet them they will tell us that they still have the album and it brings back to them so many positive memories.
Several campers have shared that at this camp they do not need to explain why they do not live at home because all the children there are in foster care.
One year we had a child that came to us out of a failed adoption. When he got off the bus he had his hat pulled down over his eyes and would not smile or look up. By the end of the week of camp he no longer had his hat pulled down but was looking up and laughing and smiling.
Again, years later children will tell us that their week at camp was one of the most wonderful times that they can remember from their childhood.
As foster mom stated “ I picked up six extremely enthusiastic children. They were wearing hats, shirts, souvenirs, smiles and each had their own special story to tell”