Providing Comfort and Care

Foster Love endeavors to make the foster care experience better for the 430,000 kids in the US system. The organization, based in Brea, California, offers services through tangible resources, educational scholarships, and supplemental support to agencies and foster parents. Thousands of volunteers, social workers, and Court Appointed Special Advocates partner with the nonprofit to support those goals and make life easier for foster children. This year, the International Conference & EXPO is joining those ranks.

The TD for Good service activity at ATD25 invites in-person attendees to stop by its location on the EXPO floor to build sweet cases. The packages, notes Foster Love, provide an alternative to the standard, two-trash-bag allotment minors receive from the state to carry their belongings when they enter foster care.

Sweet cases are made of a specially manufactured duffle bag that includes a removable side panel attached with Velcro. Each bundle comes with comfort items: an activity book with crayons, a blanket, a plush bear, and a hygiene kit.

According to Foster Love, children—between six and eight years old on average—receive 15 minutes to pack their belongings when they enter the foster care system. Most pack toys and forget essential items, which is why sweet cases include an essential hygiene kit.

Each sweet case is different—Foster Love encourages volunteers to decorate duffle bags and add items such as handwritten letters, books, flashlights, and refillable water bottles. Sweet cases provide foster kids with tangible resources, dignity, and the knowledge that their duffle bag was designed just for them.

Foster Love also gifts children in foster care other kindnesses such as birthday boxes, superhero boxes, STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) boxes, bikes, and skateboards. The organization leads an effort to reunify separated siblings and provides housing support for young adults who age out of the system without support.

Read more about ATD25 at conferencedaily.td.org.