A Message from Dr. Phil and Robin McGraw
National Spokespersons for the Forgotten Children Campaign

Many children in foster care will have no future unless someone says: "I will make the difference." Please join our Forgotten Children campaign and make a lifelong difference for a child.

You may have heard me say it before: "You can't change what you don't acknowledge."

Well, National CASA's Forgotten Children campaign is all about helping America to acknowledge its problem: too many abused and neglected kids, and not enough people to serve them.

This year, local CASA offices all over the country will be staging dramatic events to raise public awareness about just how many children and youth are in foster care — and how desperately they need someone to stand up for them. It started last May in Washington, D.C. Over five days, 4,250 life-size cardboard cutouts of kids were placed on the lawn of the National Monument, representing the very real children who entered foster care during that brief period.

Do the math: that's more than 300,000 children entering the system each year. And, in fact, the problem is a lot bigger, because today some 500,000 kids are living in foster care. And during this year, 800,000 kids will filter through the system.

This is what Americans need to change, and CASA volunteers — 60,000 of them, working in 954 programs across the country — are already on the job, fighting to give these kids a voice and get them into safe, permanent homes. When it comes to advocating for abused and neglected kids, CASA volunteers are on the front lines ' investigating, communicating, and giving each child his or her voice in court.

That's why Robin and I have stepped forward to be the spokespersons for the Forgotten Children campaign. We know something about the power of communication, and we want to help make the work of CASA volunteers known in every household in this nation. Right now, CASA volunteers serve approximately 250,000 of those 500,000 kids. If this campaign brings as much new awareness, money, and volunteer enlistment as Robin and I know it can, then it's going to bring us a lot closer to that day when there's a CASA volunteer standing by the side of every single child in foster care.

You can help us reach that ultimate goal by joining National CASA's Forgotten Children campaign today. It costs on average $950 a year to give a child a CASA volunteer. That means that every $80 you can raise supports a CASA volunteer's efforts for another month. For a child, that's a gift that lasts a lifetime.

Watch One Family's Story