Foster Care Festival to Highlight Resources and Awareness
By HEIDI PRUITT
The Kokomo Post Staff
This weekend, the “Foster” in Foster Park will take on a whole new meaning.
Local nonprofit Foster the Need is giving the public a chance to learn, donate and have fun this week with the first official Foster Care Festival, from 3 to 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 29, in Foster Park.
The day will include free live music from local bands Shiny Penny and Ivory Moss, games and activities for all ages, and resources for those currently fostering or interested in getting involved.
“Everyone wants to give a kid a teddy bear, but sometimes they really need is a toothbrush and a pair of socks,” said Kristen Brodt, cofounder of Foster the Need.
What began as a three-month assignment for the Indiana Bankers Association’s Leadership Development Program, is still making a huge impact throughout 24 Indiana counties four years later. The nonprofit began when the group was paired together and given the task to complete a service project; they never imagined the impact something so simple could make.
When Brodt, Shane Martin and Krisha Sutphin were grouped together for this project, they knew they wanted to work on a societal issue they were knowledgeable and passionate about. When Sutphin and Brodt discovered commonalities in both having experienced being foster parents, Foster the Need was born.
After the group met with the Department of Child Services, local foster parents and other organizations that serve foster families, they found something was substantially lacking: Basic hygiene items.
“We always try to focus on the bare essentials, to make sure they aren’t going into a new placement or a new home without at least a clean pair of socks and a shirt to put on their back,” said Martin.
Since 2018, Foster the Need, now a registered 501(C)3 nonprofit, has provided more than 3,000 hygiene bags to foster children throughout 24 Indiana counties.
The event, Martin said, has three main goals: raise money for foster care families in the community, get families involved in fostering and raising awareness, and make connections between organizations and fostering families.
As of September 2022, he said, there were 152 children in the foster care system in Howard County.
For Brodt, a vital part of this event is making the discussion about foster care less taboo.
“There’s a huge stigma with foster kids and even foster parents are looked down on in a lot of ways,” she said. “There are many ways to be involved, not everyone wants to be a foster parent, but there are a lot of ways to support the foster care community. We are working to make it more relatable.”
Foster the Need is hoping for a large turnout for its first event, to continue building relationships with the public, and foster families, and to raise awareness of resources for those in need.
“It’s a great way for foster families to be able to connect. I will say from experience, fostering is isolating. Kids have a lot of trauma and things to work through. It’s good for other foster families to be around each other and build relationships,” said Brodt.
This free event will include food available for purchase from Taco Boss Shop, as well as activities for children in attendance.
For more information on this event and how you can get involved, click here.
