Ampersand Families

Each year in Minnesota, more than 11,000 kids experience out-of-home placement. Most of these kids will safely return home when their parents get the help they need. But some will spend years in foster care - some their entire childhoods. Over 350 Minnesota teens age out of foster care each year with no legal family, no financial resources, and no formal support system.

These precious young people are far more likely to experience homelessness, poverty, poor mental health, early pregnancy, incarceration, and other serious life challenges.

It doesn’t have to be this way.  

By implementing the Child Specific Recruitment model with youth, Ampersand Families has had a higher success rate in placing older youth with supportive families - directly strengthening educational outcomes, reducing the number of youth that age out of the child welfare system, and addressing deep cultural disparities locally for young people often deemed “too old” to be adopted.

Donate this Give to the Max Day & 

Double your impact on youth and families in Minnesota's Child Welfare System.

This Give to the Max Day, all donations to Ampersand Families will be matched $1 for $1 to ensure Ampersand Families' programs can continue to reach older youth in foster care across Minnesota.  As federal budget and grant cuts continue to threaten the support programs that youth in the child welfare system desperately need, your support is needed to fill in the gaps and provide youth and families the services they deserve.

Ampersand’s service model is uniquely successful because we spend time with each child to understand their hopes for the future and what they’re looking for in a family, then identify caring adults whose skill sets and personalities are a good match. Since our founding in 2008, Ampersand Families has connected over 500 kids in foster care to safe, permanent families by focusing on identity and culturally affirming placements connected to the young person’s community and culture. 

Here are a few highlights from this past year:

• 50 Young people were supported with Child Specific Recruitment.

  • 22 Youth were new Child Specific Recruitment Cases.

  • 7 Child Specific Recruitment Cases placed in a safe, permanent home in 2025

  • 71% of cases were placed with a Relative or Kin.

• 104 Youth Leadership program participants

• 29 NMT assessments & consultations completed

• 60 Youth photo shoots completed for the Minnesota Heart Gallery

• 2,298 Relatives and Kin Identified through:

  • 31 Relative Search & Engagement Cases, impacting 42 youth

  • 35 New Kin Link Cases, impacting 49 youth

• 25 Families received ongoing placement support

• 17 Families are pursuing placement for a relative or kin 

• 8 Finalized Placements

  • 50% of placements were with Relatives or Kin

Read more about our work and outcomes in our FY24 Annual report or on our website.  

Thank you for supporting this work!