Project Shoe Box was founded in 2012 with the goal of providing a care package to children entering foster care in Southeastern Wisconsin. Project Shoe Box strives to provide a care package to every child being removed from their homes due to unsafe situations such as abuse and neglect.
A total of 4,686 children were removed from their families and placed in foster care in Wisconsin in 2010. Of these over 4,000 children, 1,131 children were from Milwaukee County. It is common for this experience to be chaotic and terrifying for a child. They are generally leaving behind all they have ever known to enter into a foster homes with complete strangers. Sadly, many children enter these homes with little or no belongings. Some children enter foster care simply with the clothes on their back because it is impossible to obtain the child’s own belongings or the child has no belongings.
Project Shoe Box gives children the opportunity to enter into foster care with a shoe box filled with items they can call their own. This small box makes a world of a difference to a child going through an experience many of us struggle to even imagine.
- Statistics obtained from Wisconsin Child in Out-Of-Home Care Annual Report 2010 at http://dcf.wisconsin.gov/cwreview/reports/OOHC/2010-OOHC.pdf