My Bedding Project

K-12 STEAM Education

Other:: Supporting Students in LA County schools

Expand existing project, program, or initiative

In California, there are over 60,000 children in the foster care system. Children who are in foster care for 24 months or longer experienced 5 or more placements and 44% experienced 3 or more placements. Many times, minors find themselves packing their belongings and saying goodbye to items belonging to their resource parents such as bedding and decor. Minors exiting foster care shared that they often lacked strong support and guidance that they needed to successfully transition into adulthood (Children Law Center of California).

By listening to youth and young adults, we discovered their needs through direct conversations and questionnaires. S & L maintains a variety of community services that expose youth and young adults with training, mentorships, academic support, therapeutic services, and extracurricular activities. We found that many youth and young adults have never selected their own bedding sets, and often require help with obtaining dorm essentials. "My Bedding" Project: Children and youth receive a customized comforter set with a matching decorative item (i.e., poster, wall decor, and/or decorative pillow, etc.), books, mattress protectors, and a pillow for their bedroom helping to establish a sense of pride and security. Our process: resource parents, social workers, and/or youth/young adults submit their request, we purchase the items, and then we deliver directly to the youth/young adults.

Our "My bedding" Project can assist college students who have a connection to the foster care system worry about one less thing when obtaining a better life for themselves. This can provide support, a sense of pride and help with a comfortable environment to study in. Testimonial: "I just wanted to say thank you so much for the bag/comforter. I really do appreciate it, I never knew how the other people outside of this EOP program, foster care, etc. would think of others or help out, but Thank You So Much. I have a terrifying past and I'm learning to grow & learn and is why I appreciate anything, no matter how small or big it may be. Thank you very much!" - Aged out foster youth attending college. Testimonial: "I would like to Say Thank you for all the help you have given me in order to continue my education.Thank you for your kind thoughts and feelings towards me and I can't wait to give back what has been given to me... Again Just a huge Thank you for what you've done for me."

By listening to youth and young adults, we discovered their needs through direct conversations and questionnaires. S & L maintains a variety of community services that expose youth and young adults with training,mentorships, academic support, therapeutic services, and extracurricular activities. S & L is operated by two minority women who have experience working with diverse populations in social services and can relate to the populations that we serve. Both women have experience in social work, and Lakiesha was a previous foster parent & adoptive mother prior to becoming a social worker. We maintain surveys, testimonials and spreadsheets to track our progress.