My grandmother, Victoria moved to the United States as a 7-year-old orphan. She was raised by relatives who took her in and loved her as their own daughter.

She worked her entire life as a maid, a cook, and a babysitter so that we could help others through public service.

There is no higher calling than doing everything we can to help the most vulnerable among us, which of course includes children and families in foster care.

Every child deserves a safe, caring family that enables them to pursue their highest potential.

That’s why I’m proposing a new Children First plan for foster care to invest in our nation’s most vulnerable children, keep families together by prioritizing prevention, and improve the system for foster children to have a better future.

This issue is personal for me. And it’s one that is often overlooked. I’m asking you to pitch in $5 to help me reach the next debates and keep critical issues like this one at the forefront of the conversation.

We can do better as a nation to serve each other and build a country where everyone counts. This Children First plan for foster care is an important part of that vision for the future.

-- As president, I will take executive action to eliminate the discriminatory rules that prevent LGBTQ families from fostering or adopting. This is state-sponsored discrimination that will not be enabled by federal funding.

-- We will invest an additional $10 billion a year and more than double the resources for primary prevention services to help children and their parents stay together.

-- We will emphasize kinship care for children to remain with their relatives and move to a team model of evaluation so that children are only removed from their birth parents as a last resort.

Overall, our goal should be to reduce the number of children entering the foster care system by addressing the root causes — deprivation, substance abuse, and a lack of social services — and keep families together.

Throughout this presidential campaign, I have been intentional about how different issues intersect and done my best to connect the dots between different policies to lift up the most marginalized communities.

In a Castro administration, we will proactively advance the welfare of children.

That starts with keeping this pivotal issue at the forefront of the conversation in this race. I’m counting on your $5 to help me reach the next debate, share this issue on the national stage, and continue to be a voice for those who have long been forgotten and overlooked. >>

Thank you,

Julián