Impact Grant: Coachella Valley Foster Kids
News Channel 3 and the H.N. and Frances C. Berger Foundation presented another Impact Grant to a local nonprofit working to improve lives and help those in need. A $10,000 charitable gift was awarded to Coachella Valley Foster Kids, which offers a range of services and resources to children in the foster care system.
When Indio resident Melissa Wooten recently got the call to foster a young girl, she contacted the organization, which immediately provided her with a variety of necessities. "It's already hard being a foster parent because every child has different needs and different wants. But when Coachella Valley Foster Kids has the beds, the clothes, the shoes, it's one less thing you have to worry about," she said.
There are currently about 2,500 kids in the Coachella Valley's foster care system, with 600 new kids entering the system each year. These children are often victims of abuse and neglect, human trafficking, and homelessness. After seeing firsthand how the system that was designed to protect children was failing to provide for their basic needs, a small group of Valley attorneys formed CV Foster Kids.
"While the department does what they can, there are still things that are missing that any regular parent would be able to access. But these are foster parents who are suddenly getting a child placed with them, and they have nothing and often times the kids have nothing," CV Foster Kids secretary Forest Wilkerson said.
It is an entirely volunteer organization, with all the money raised going directly to providing resources in the foster care system: everything from clothing and hygiene kits to summer camps, and college mentoring. But the biggest and most important need is to provide beds for foster children to sleep in.
"If they didn't have a bed, it delays reunification with their parents. If they don't have a bed and can't be placed with a relative or foster care family, then they're waiting in the CPS office until they can find placement. And nobody wants a child sleeping in a CPS office," CV Foster Kids treasurer Lauren Budd said.
And so the H.N. and Frances C. Berger Foundation and News Channel 3 presented the organization with a special surprise. The $10,000 Impact Grant will help CV Foster Kids in its mission to be ensure every child impacted by the foster care system has a bed to sleep in.
"It feels amazing to be able to provide this for these kids, and all of us on the board are overjoyed that the organization has been growing as much as it has. And every grant helps, every donation helps," Wilkerson said.
Meanwhile, Wooten said CV Foster Kids continues to be a godsend for her and other foster care families. "Who else is going to help them? If we don't then who else?" she asked.
For more information, head to cvfosterkids.com.
