Jan. 1, 1970
Partnership offers comfort to foster kids
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – May is National Foster Care Awareness Month, all about raising awareness of issues related to foster care.
On Thursday, OhioRISE partnered with the international nonprofit Comfort Cases to address an issue many foster youths face.
Comfort Cases founder Rob Scheer, a foster parent himself, said when kids enter foster care, they are given a trash bag to put all of their belongings in. Comfort Cases was founded to combat this practice.
OhioRISE volunteers helped pack comfort cases filled with the essentials like toiletries, clothes, a blanket, books, and stuffed animals.
Comfort Cases said that most of the backpacks packed on Thursday will be in the hands of a child within 24 hours.
“Children are in foster care because of a choice someone else made,” Scheer said. “We have a choice to let them know that this is not acceptable. We know this was designed for trash, not children’s clothing.”
“There really is no reason that you that are in foster care should be carrying their lives with them in a garbage bag,” Aetna OhioRISE CEO Marti Taylor said.
More than 320,000 Comfort Cases® have been delivered to all 50 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico.
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