Providing the “bear” essentials for children entering care.
Operating since the fall of 2019, The Den at DHR is one of MCFAPA’s primary programs, offering first night essentials to children entering foster care. The Den is stocked with new items such as clothing, PJs, shoes, socks, underwear, toiletries, specific hair care items, stuffed animals, books, and more! These items complete a KICK (Kids in Care Kit) Bag that should accompany new placements to their new foster home. Our goal in providing these bags is to help the foster parent through their first couple of days until they can get to a local clothing resource like Our Kids at The Rock Family Worship Center.
MCFAPA welcomes local organizations that would like to host their own “KICK Bag” Drive.
Download this handy checklist to help collect the most needed items for our bags or shop from our Amazon Wishlist here. Keep watch on our Facebook Page as well, where we sometimes post immediate needs.
Interested in covering the cost of one KICK Bag? You can donate here!
Madison County Caseworkers, or those interested with out The Den operates, check out this quick walk through video!
From 2019 to Present:
In August of 2019, it came to our attention that the clothing closet at DHR was cluttered, crowded, & not being utilized. With the help of a Serve Project coordinated with Church of the Highlands as well as help from Foster Love HSV, MCFAPA was able to renovate the closet into a clean, organized, and usable space. Dubbed “The Den,” this space provides the “bear essentials” needed for children first entering foster care until foster families can get to one of our partners like Our Kids Clothing Closet at The Rock Family Worship Center.
In conjunction with our KICK (Kids in Care Kit) Bag program that started in October 2019, we are now able to serve almost every child coming into care with items to get them through their first couple of nights in care. In just the first 2 months of launching, we were able to provide over 50 KICK Bags to children entering care. Since then, we have been able to serve over 1,100 children first entering foster care here in Madison County through The Den alone, not counting the thousands of others through The MCFAPA Exchange. On average, The Den serves 25+ children each month now.
