Placement Kits

One of the things we LOVE doing at Foster Kids KC is providing “Placement Kits” to children entering the foster care system. Foster children are often removed quickly from their biological home and they enter their new foster home with little to no belongings. The swiftness of this process causes the foster family to find out about a placement anywhere from 20 minutes to 24 hours before the child comes. When the foster child arrives, it’s so important for bonding to occur immediately and for the foster parents to be home to help the child adjust and feel comfortable without having to go out and try to find basic necessities for the child/children. That’s where we come in! We find out a bit about the child and what their specific needs are and come to their home within 24 hours of placement with items they need. The particular placement this week needed pajamas, sheets, mattress protectors, a few outfits for the first few days, a coat, etc. We even threw in a few stuffed animals to comfort them and I got a text later from the foster mom saying that the little boy hadn’t put the animal down since he arrived. All kits are customized specifically to care for THAT particular child.

It’s difficult to imagine what it would feel like to be pulled from the only home you’ve ever known, only to arrive at a strangers house where nothing is familiar and you don’t have the mental capacity to fully understand why this is all happening. That happened to over 250,00 kids this year, totaling over 400,000 kids in America. Our heart at Foster Kids KC is to make this difficult transition as smooth and peaceful as possible. And bonus points if we can add something to bring sparkle to their eyes.