Nearly 1 in 5 children aged 12-15 who recently entered care had two or more home moves in a year – that means packing up their whole lives and getting to know a new set of carers every few months. So it is unsurprising that one teenager told my team she feels like a “parcel” being moved around.
OUR MISSION
INSPIRING COMMUNITIES TO BRING DIGNITY AND HOPE TO YOUTH IN FOSTER CARE
On any given day, there are over 108,000* children in care looked after away from home in the UK. Most of them are removed from their homes with little more than the clothes on their backs with an estimated 30,000 moved around the system every year. Many have little except for the clothes on their backs. If they do have any personal belongings, they often don't even have their own bag in which to carry them.
*Become. 2022
OUR AIM
We work with Local Authorities, Independent Foster Agencies, National and Regional Associations and Charities to provide children with Comfort Cases at the point at which they enter their new home, whether it be temporary, emergency or permanent.
A Comfort Case gives a child entering foster care a sense of dignity and hope. Each bag is packed with a cosy new pair of pyjamas, a stuffed animal to hug, a toothbrush, soap and other personal care items for their first few nights with a new family.
It does not replace the kindness of foster carers. It is a gift without conditions, that belongs to the child, given to them by their social worker when they enter a new home.
We also offer empty Comfort XL Duffel Bags to partner organisations so that they can give them to children when they are removed from their homes in an emergency. A duffel bag does not eliminate the trauma of moving home multiple times. But social workers never have to use black bin bags.
OUR HISTORY
Formed out of a community project called You Donate We Deliver, we were cooking and delivering nutritious meals, snacks and baked goods to the NHS and ambulance services during the Covid-19 pandemic. Post Covid-19 we felt that Comfort Cases would be the next logical step on our amazing journey.
OUR TEAM
Our amazing team are committed to helping others. We are people of convictions and are turning that into action. We believe in a compassionate community that cares for the most vulnerable among us, and we can all do something to bring comfort to children in foster care.
bet you didn't know?
1 CHILD ENTERS CARE EVERY 15 MINUTES IN THE UK
CAN YOU PROVIDE ONE CHILD EACH MONTH WITH A COMFORT CASE AND STOP THE USE OF BIN BAGS TO MOVE CHILDREN IN FOSTER CARE?