Helping Foster Care Children

Every day, children are being removed from their home, often at a moment’s notice to go into Foster Care. Most of these children leave their home with a trash bag of the few belongings they were able to grab. An excellent project for Altrusa (especially ones with crafty members) and ASTRA, is purchasing canvas bags and decorating them with pictures, nice sentiments, or quotes. These bags could then be given to your local County Department of Human Resources for a worker to bring to give to the child when they are removing him/her from their home. This project is very low cost and is very hands on for the members.

As another possible project involving your local DHR is to begin a clothes closet. These could be donated clothing, accessories, etc for all ages. This could benefit women struggling to find jobs by providing job interview appropriate attire. It can also benefit children in foster care by giving them clothing they may not be able to get otherwise. It may be possible to get out-of-season clothing and hanger donations from local clothing stores. This would also be very low cost and very hands on for members.

Contact your local Dept of Human Resources.