Photo courtesy of Geraldine Moore-Butler

Millions of Americans spend Thanksgiving with family, and charities all over the country help out families or individuals who can’t afford a feast. But until recently, one slice of the population fell through the cracks: ex-foster children, a lost cohort of young Americans.

In 2008, the San Francisco Bay Area organization First Place for Youth helped nearly 1,000 transition-age foster youth through housing, education, and employment programs. First Place focuses on the critical time in these youths’ lives, as they grow out of the foster care system, a state-determined age that ranges between 18 and 21. The odds against these young adults are staggering: 65% face imminent homelessness, 20% will be arrested or incarcerated, and only 3% will graduate from college.

As a volunteer, Geraldine Moore-Butler helps First Place youths beat those statistics. And compared to other transition-age foster youth nationwide, First Place youths are 5 times less likely to experience homelessness, 3 times less likely to be arrested, and 6 times more likely to be enrolled in college.

But Thanksgiving weekend, the priority isn’t education or job training: It’s helping the ex-foster kids feel included in the fabric of society.

Moore-Butler led that effort last year, providing Thanksgiving baskets for each of the young men and women in the program thanks to financial support from her employer. It was so successful that this year she coordinated it again, recruiting coworkers to help put together 50 packages. As a project assistant at an environmental engineering firm and parent of two grown children, she might have said that she couldn’t find the time to volunteer, but she has first-hand experience seeing the difference a network of caring support can make.

How did you get involved with First Place for Youth?

I’ve had relatives who went through the foster care system, so when I learned about First Place last year, a little light went off in my head. First Place needed help with things like gifts and decorations, so I thought I’d give back with my creativity and organization. At first, I helped blow up balloon arches for the monthly graduations, and that made the youth’s eyes light up. They’d be like, “Wow, they did this for me?!”

Why the enthusiasm?

They’ve never had that support. These youths have never stayed with a family long enough to establish a family. They never had that bonding. A lot of them bounced from home to home, and it just gets harder as they get older. If a parent gets a foster child as an infant, they are more able to bond with them. But for those children who come into the system a little older, they’ve already experienced a lot of emotional setbacks. A lot of them have backgrounds with abuse, drug addiction, or alcoholic parents. A lot of them are sleeping on the streets or couches with a bag of clothes—you know, they don’t have suitcases or anything.

There’s a personal side to your knowledge of foster care. What was the experience like for your family?

I have three nieces and one nephew about my age who went through foster care. My brother and his wife were unable to care for them. The kids were bounced around between two or three foster families when they were about eight or nine. They didn’t stay together; they were spread out over three homes. Some of them were pretty rough on the kids.

Do some memories stick out more than others?

I remember one time when one of my nieces was eight and I was ten. She was crying because she wanted to come and live with my family.

Were you able to stay involved in their lives?

I’m probably closer to them than any of my other nieces and nephews. They were very fortunate, because they had family that loved them. They always knew they had a grandmother who loved them; she just wasn’t able to raise them. Today, the whole family is in contact. It’s like we’re all reconnected after all that. I’m probably their favorite auntie, you know, they’ll call me say “Oh Aunt Geraldine.” They know that I love them unconditionally.

What are they up to now?

The niece I mentioned found a family that connected with her and she stayed with them until she graduated from high school. One of them has a master’s degree, another has a singing career, another is a makeup artist to Hollywood celebrities, and another just graduated from nursing school.

Those are the kinds of success stories that First Place works to achieve. Do young adults who are struggling hear those stories?

Definitely. You know, if you’re a parent and you’ve raised your child, you still call when they’re grown up. Foster care youth don’t have that person to connect with once they turn 18. If they have something like First Place where they’ve bonded, they can come back and bounce ideas and talk about their lives. They can serve as a mentor, and the youth listen to them because they’ve walked in their shoes…and they still gained a foothold on society.

What happens at a time like Thanksgiving, when it’s all about family?

Thanksgiving is a time for being grateful, and I think a lot of them wonder, “What do I have to be grateful for? What’s there for me?” They look around and there are all these other families. They have no one to go home to. But I think that the preparation of food baskets that we do shows them that, look, somebody cares for you. They don’t have to be related to you.

What’s in the baskets?

Everything these youth need to make their first Thanksgiving meals is there. Stuffing, corn, yams, chicken broth, pie filling…everything. All the fixings are in a basket.

How does making the baskets shape your Thanksgiving?

I think that when you give back you get so much in return. When you think your life is pretty rocky, you have to look at other people who are less fortunate than you and reach out. You find that you’re more grateful.