Monroe Martin

May is National Foster Care Month “In many ways foster care saved me. But I want to see a lot of change happen in the system. I want to see less medicine in these kids. I want to see more efforts being made to reunite families. And if they’re unable to reunite, the kids should be placed with someone who really cares about them.” – comedian Monroe Martin COMEDIAN MONROE MARTIN TALKS ABOUT LIFE IN FOSTER CARE FOR 4TH ANNUAL FOSTERING THE FUTURE CAMPAIGN Comedian Monroe Martin is joining young people from every region in the U.S. for Children’s Rights’ 4th annual Fostering the Future campaign, a public awareness effort that sheds light on the realities of life in state care. Failed adoptions, physical abuse, mental illness, addiction and even a forced marriage are just some of the scenarios that led to life in foster care for this year’s group of bloggers, who are writing about their experiences this May, National Foster Care Month. These first-person accounts expose a system that fails the children in its care as often as it saves them. Last year, using the hashtag #FosterTruth, our writers’ poignant stories received 1.25 million hits on social media. Children’s Rights expects to double that number, thereby helping to grow and coalesce a movement that is ready, willing and able to impact change. Join comedian Monroe Martin on Tuesday, May 3rd as he discusses growing up in foster care, how he found his calling, and why we should #FosterTruth. Stats on Foster Care: More than 650,000 children spend time in U.S. foster care every year. About 12,000 of the nearly 108,000 foster kids awaiting adoption have been in state care for five years or longer. At any given time, about 23,000 kids live in group homes and more than 32,000 live in institutions. And 23 states fail to meet the federal standard for keeping kids safe from abuse and neglect in care. BIO: Monroe Martin is a stand-up comedian who performs across the country. He has appeared on the Netflix series Master of None, NBC’s Last Comic Standing and Adam Devine’s House Party on Comedy Central. Martin also wrote for the MTV2 series Charlamagne and Friends. For more information visit: www.childrensrights .org or http://monroemartincomedy.com/