This outreach began years ago with a simple exchange of clothes, toys, and furniture between local foster parents. Foster parents are the most resourceful people! Throughout the years friends and family have shared items with us to share with other foster families. In the last year, the word about our efforts has spread to the point that we decided to seek non-profit status so the general public c
an help as well. Our children often arrive with just the clothes they are wearing. Parents, think about everything your child uses on a daily basis. Imagine replacing that. It can be overwhelming and expensive. The state does provide some funds, but those funds may not be readily available or enough. That's where Filling the Gap Foundation wants to help. In addition to providing items children need, we have plans to create support groups and a mentoring program, provide life skills classes, host social events for children in care, assist with extracurricular activity expenses, support teens aging out of foster care, provide welcome/comfort kits to new foster children, and more. We would love to hear from former foster children about what support they wished was available. If you are a former foster child and would like to serve as a mentor, please contact us. The outreach is operated by volunteer foster and adoptive parents. All expenses are paid by those volunteers. We currently do not have an office location although we hope that will change with our non-profit status and fundraising. If you own a retail or office building in the lake area and would like to donate the use of a space, please contact us. Meanwhile, we have a storage unit in Moss Bluff and can coordinate pick ups of donations throughout the lake area. If your business or church would like to serve as a drop off site for us, please contact us. Our goal is to have at least one site in every town and multiple sites in Lake Charles. While we would love monetary donations to get a head start on our plans, we do not have non-profit status yet. Once that is approved, we will post details about how to make monetary donations. What items will be accepted? We will gladly accept any gently used or new items that children, newborn to teens, can use. We will also accept household items that a teen may use for their first apartment. Due to safety and sanitary reasons, we cannot accept used car seats or underwear. Please check toys, furniture, and baby equipment for safety recalls prior to donating. At this time, due to space constraints, we can only accept crib/toddler sized mattresses and beds that have been disassembled. However, if you have a larger mattress or assembled bed, feel free to post on the page or message us. A foster parent may wish to make independent pick up arrangements. Please watch the page for a comprehensive list. It will soon be posted. What does gently used mean? It means clean, used items with little wear, no tears, no stains, no odors, in style, and that includes all working parts. If you would readily give it to a friend, it is probably in gently used condition. We would love it! Under the "Products" section, we will list current fundraisers. These are independent fundraisers set up by local foster/adoptive parents to help offset the current expenses (non-profit set up, storage unit rental, supplies, and gas). We hope that this has answered your questions about who we are and what we plan to accomplish. If you still have questions, please message or email us. We would love to hear from you!
