Ampersand Families

Every year, hundreds of older youth in foster care looking to find their safe, identity affirming, forever homes are left waiting due to the stigma of being "unadoptable". In 2008, Ampersand Families was founded to change this stigma and create a model of finding placement for older youth for other agencies to follow. Since founding, Ampersand has helped over 400 young people find their family.

Ampersand Families is a 16-year-old, award-winning nonprofit dedicated to the long-term well-being of our state’s most vulnerable youth, older and harder to place youth in the child welfare system. Our mission is to walk alongside youth, families, and communities who have been impacted by the child welfare system with a commitment to build and restore meaningful relationships while centering and upholding a youth’s whole identity.

Currently, about 350 Minnesota teens (and disproportionately BIPOC or LGBTQIA+ youth) each year age out of foster care with no legal family, no home, and no financial resources. These are the young people our agency was created to serve – youth at risk of entering adulthood alone and unsupported. We help older Minnesota kids in foster care remain connected to their community, culture, and identity as they join or rejoin safe, permanent families.

A significant barrier to finding a permanent home that connects every child to community and culture is the increased costs of quality upstream and downstream work. This process takes significantly more time and resources than current reimbursement rates and needs additional funding sources from the community to operate. Donations will offset the extra costs of directly supporting foster youth's journey to permanency, exhaustive relative searches, and family licensing supports.

Aging out of foster care is a high indicator of future life hardship. People who age out of foster care unsupport face increased risks of social exclusion, poverty, homelessness, unemployment, incarceration, addiction, and poor mental health. A study by the Anne Casey Foundation showed 20% of 21-year-olds with lived experience in foster care never graduated high school or obtained a GED, half as likely to attend post-secondary education or training, and nearly 10% less likely to be employed.