You can only help children up to legal bounds. If their parents aren't making good choices for them, but parents aren't breaking the law, there is nothing else you can do. Some parents are doing their best, some parents are doing the bare minimum, some parents are actively malicious. Again, all you can do is provide the support you're legally able to until kids hit age of maturity and make better choices for themselves. If parents step out of the boundaries of the law and/or are actively hurting/harming their kids, absolutely, intervene with whatever options are available. This is a tricky dance in my experience. You can just as easily have parents come at you civilly, criminally, or with physical violence because you've dared attempt to interfere with what they consider their property. Once a child is emancipated or reaches age of maturity, you can provide any and all resources to assist them without parental interference (housing, workforce, healthcare, etc to reach self sufficiency escape velocity).