Children enter foster care through no fault of their own, usually as a result of findings of severe abuse or neglect. The emergency court order is to remove the child, and does not allow authorities to rummage around the home to pack a bag for the child. In many cases, the child is too young or too emotional to pack a bag on their own. In other cases, children are removed while at school or enter foster care without direct access to their belongings. In severe cases, the neglect is such that the children have nothing to bring.

In the State of NH, Foster Parents are responsible for clothing the children in their care. And, while foster parents are provided with a daily stipend to help offset the costs involved with caring for a child, it's not enough to cover the "up-front" costs of purchasing enough clothing for a child arriving with nothing. In a private study, we found that foster parents were spending an average of $400 to outfit a single child with only the basics for one week. Now imagine the call was for a sibling group of 3! Our clothing bundles provide this basic wardrobe free of charge to foster families, helping them say "YES" to helping a child who needs a safe home without concern of financial impact.

When a foster family says "yes" to providing a safe home for a child, there are many barriers that exist when it comes to outfitting that child. This is a partial list of the circumstances that may exist, which make it difficult to provide this basic need in the first couple of days:

1.) The child often arrives in less than an hour! When a child needs emergency removal, case workers frantically call down the list of available foster parents. When one says "yes", they say "great, we're on our way!"

2.) Sizes are often not known until the child arrives

3.) In some cases, children were not wearing shoes when they were removed. "No shoes, no service" -- this makes it difficult to bring the child to the store.

4.) The child has just experienced a traumatic event -- the last thing they want to do is shop.

5.) You're a stranger! They just lost everything, and they just met you! How are they supposed to trust you enough to get in your car and go to the store?

Our program alleviates most of these issues by delivering a basic wardrobe to the foster family's door, usually within a few hours of receiving a clothing request. They simply fill out a request online with the size(s) they need and their address -- so simple it can be done in 30 seconds from their phone. Our kits are pre-built so they're ready for delivery right away!

Clothing kits are sponsored by individuals like YOU! With your support, we can continue to provide clothing kits to children in foster care FREE of charge. While most of the clothing in the kit is gently-used, each kit costs our organization around $150 to produce. This covers the costs involved with collecting massive amounts of used clothing, sorting the clothing donations, supplying the new items for each package (nobody wants used underwear y'all!) and materials needed to package the kits. Your monetary donation in any amount helps us to be able to continue to serve more and more children each year.