First Star believes if society fails to prevent child maltreatment, our nation must provide abused and neglected children with quality and compassionate care.

First Star believes abused and neglected children have the right to safe, permanent, and nurturing homes, quality education, representation by qualified legal counsel, notice and opportunity to participate in their cases, and protection by open and accountable courts.

First Star believes child welfare professionals who protect, treat, and represent abused and neglected children should be well-trained and fairly compensated.

First Star believes child abuse and neglect is not a partisan issue.

• 24 Students Graduate from Inaugural Foster Youth Academy: The First Star UCLA Bruin Guardian Scholars Summer Academy

• The results are "even more positive than I could have hoped for," said Janina Montero, UCLA's vice chancellor of student affairs. "They are buying into the concept of college."

• First Star is determined to shatter the shameful statistics surrounding foster children, huge numbers of whom end up homeless and incarcerated in the years after their 18th birthdays, when they “age out” of the system. Only a fraction of them—6% - continue their educations beyond high school.

• First Star's ultimate goal is to create residential boarding schools for foster youth on university campuses to prepare them for college.

• States across the country regularly confiscate the assets of foster children, including Social Security survivor and disability benefits to defray the cost of their care. In essence these children are paying for their own care.

• This practice all but ensures the failure of foster youth who "age-out" of foster care at age 18.

• Foster children are becoming victims of identity theft at an alarming rate, as their social security numbers pass through the hands of numerous agencies and individuals throughout their tenure in the system.

• Representative Pete Stark (D-CA) said, "This report makes it clear that child welfare agencies regularly act contrary to the best interest of the children they are charged with protecting."

• Identity Theft 911 and First Star Team Up to Combat Foster Youth Identity Theft

• Identity Theft 911 and First Star have partnered to provide education, proactive support and fraud resolution services to foster youth.

• "Foster youth are particularly vulnerable to identity theft because of the transient nature of their lives," Matt Culina, CEO of Identity Theft 911.

• A shared passion for protecting and empowering young people brought together Identity Theft 911 and First Star.

Identity Theft 911 Chief Executive Officer Matt Cullina has received a Communitas Award for his work in helping protect foster youth from becoming victims of identity theft.

First Star Founder Peter Samuelson and Cullina delivered a series of educational seminars to ninth grade foster children in Los Angeles County in a program called the First Star UCLA Bruin Academy.