College of the Desert Foster Youth Center collecting donations for comfort bags

PALM DESERT, Calif. (KESQ) - The Foster Youth Center at College of the Desert is collecting donations to create comfort bags for foster students across the Coachella Valley. What began as a holiday project has grown into a year-round effort to ensure local foster youth receive basic essentials—and a reminder that they are not alone.

Philip Salas, Foster Youth Services counselor, says the bags will go to 112 foster youth students identified throughout the valley. Each one is filled with hygiene products, blankets, coloring books, and other personal essentials meant to provide dignity and immediate support.

“Their scars and their bruises are hidden. You don’t know who they are. There’s a lot more than you realize."

Philip Salas, Foster Youth Services Counselor

Many foster youth, he explains, enter care with only a few belongings—often carried in trash bags. The center hopes these donations will replace those with sturdy, personal bags students can call their own.

“We felt that they needed a bag to put their belongings in so it’s not a trash bag, something they can actually have that’s their own and it’s filled with items that they may need quickly and items that they can use to try and take their minds as much as possible off it.”

Philip Salas, Foster Youth Services Counselor

Also helping lead the initiative is Alexandria Miller, a former foster youth student who knows firsthand how difficult these transitions can be. She recalls being given only a Walmart bag to gather her belongings.

"That part by itself is traumatizing, scary for anyone... These normal necessities, they’re not just normal for us anymore, this is a gift, this is something huge for us because we don’t have this.”

Alexandria Miller, Former Foster Youth Student

Miller notes that the holiday season can amplify feelings of isolation and uncertainty for foster youth.

Despite that reality, Salas says the community’s response has been overwhelming. Donations have poured in, filling the center with boxes that volunteers have eagerly broken down as supplies are sorted and packed.

Donations can be dropped off at College of the Desert’s Foster Youth Center during regular business hours.

For more information, click here.

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