It is easy to see how Little Johnny might come to feel undeserving of a permanent home and no more valuable than the garbage.Īs with all great efforts of giving, it takes a village. On average, foster children live in at least three different homes throughout their time in the system each time dragging behind a trash bag of all they own in the world. They need to know they are important and valuable.” “He thinks he is going to be moved again. He becomes hysterical and falls to the floor crying,” Gagne said. “Little Johnny may see his foster mother get a trash bag to take out the trash. More: NEP youth football teams raise funds to reach World Youth Football Championships More than 25 percent of children in foster care suffer from clinical post-traumatic stress disorder and more than 80 percent of children who age out of foster care have a psychiatric diagnosis. Children who have been mistreated develop different ways of perceiving and reacting to changes in environment. While many have suffered physical injury, physical scars are only the tip of the iceberg. “They really have no choice.”Īccording to the American Academy of Pediatrics, virtually all children in foster care have been abused. “They keep rolls of garbage bags in their cars for emergencies,” said Gagne. Social workers must pack what they can quickly in an emergency situation. They need to know they are important and valuable - that they matter.”Ĭhildren being removed from a home and into foster care are moved quickly because of abuse or neglect. “Each bag has wrapped gifts for the child and has their first name monogrammed on it. “We will provide about 300 children with bags this season,” Gagne said. More: Lakeview Center seeking foster families for severely traumatized kids “We hope to reach as far out as Tallahassee and up in to Alabama, too,” Gagne said. The organization now reaches Escambia, Okaloosa and Walton counties as well. The first year, only children in Santa Rosa County received bags. Steven Gagne founded Bags of Hope in Northwest Florida three years ago to provide duffel bags to foster children who are being removed from dangerous situations and into foster care or moved from one foster home to another. There are more than 400 foster children in Escambia County alone.
DIGIPRO BAGS HOW TO
More: How to help Angel Tree program makes Christmas brighter for kids with incarcerated parents The child is oftentimes scared, alone, isolated, and now, humiliated. Traditionally, when a child goes into foster care, or is moved from one foster home to another, every item that belongs to the child gets placed in a tall kitchen trash bag. Now imagine you are 8 years old, with few belongings, no toys, and a dirty face. Imagine traveling and meeting new people at the most terrifying time in your life, carrying everything you own - in a trash bag. Even dirty clothes get a hamper or a laundry basket. You would never take your swimsuit and party clothes on vacation packed in a garbage bag.
Trash bags are for trash, not for children.
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