By Tom Latek
Kentucky Today
While doing Christmas shopping this year, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services is asking Kentuckians to consider buying an extra coat or hoodie for kids in foster care.
A coat and hoodie donation drive, being coordinated between staff at the Cabinet’s Department for Income Support, or DIS, and the Kentucky County Attorneys Association, is now collecting new coats and hoodies. “This project has the potential to help keep thousands of foster kids warm this winter,” said W. Bryan Hubbard, DIS Commissioner.
A new child’s coat or hoodie can be dropped off at any of the state’s regional child support enforcement offices or any County Attorney child support office in the state, and are being accepted through Friday, Dec. 14.
“Our staff and the county attorneys work so closely with families; they recognize that there is an immediate need for warm coats and hoodies as the number of children in care has significantly grown over the last year,” Hubbard said. “They really put their hearts into this. Community members and partners of both agencies have responded. We’re proud of the collaboration and grateful for the items that are being donated.”
The coats will be distributed across Kentucky to children who are in out of home care administered by the CHFS Department for Community Based Services.
Last year, more than 700 new coats and $2,150 in direct cash contributions were collected by DIS with cash contributions used to buy additional coats. The estimated value of the 2017 employee charity drive was about $12,000. This year’s effort expands on the 2017 donation drive and is expected to have an even bigger impact, with County Attorneys across the state playing a much larger role this year.
According to the Cabinet there are around ten thousand children in foster care across Kentucky.