Across the country, many foster care children removed from unstable homes face stress and trauma when moving from place to place. Having to transport their belongings in trash bags does little to lift their spirits.
In South Florida, local nonprofits and state legislators want to change this reality.
Nonprofit leaders and former foster care youth joined state representative Robin Bartleman, D-Weston, and senate minority leader Lori Berman, D-Boynton Beach, on National Foster Care Day to announce the donation of over 100 new reusable duffel bags to local foster children. During a news conference at ChildNet Broward’s Fort Lauderdale location, speakers said that community partners have stepped in to ensure these children feel a greater sense of dignity, even when the state legislature has failed to act on bills that would give them reusable luggage.
“Children are often forced at the most traumatic moment of their life to pack their precious belongings in trash bags. Every child in this state deserves to be treated with dignity,” Bartleman said. “Even when the legislature fails to act on something so important, the community knows what’s right.”
The nonprofits ISG Cares and Bags of Love collected new duffel bags through community donations, packing them with items like teddy bears, toiletries, blankets, journals, pens, fuzzy socks, and more.
Several organizations and companies throughout South Florida came together to make the donation possible, Bags of Love co-founder Cindy Eisen said. Organizers crowdsourced money for the bags through GoFundMe, and partners like the United Way and the Deerfield Beach Hampton Inn provided items like lip balms and teddy bears.
Sofia Babrove, who entered foster care when she was 9 and aged out in 2023, said she wishes she had received one of the newly-donated duffel bags when she was a child in the system. She described having to pack and transport her things in a trash bag as psychologically damaging, especially during such a vulnerable time.
“Being handed a bag meant for garbage and told to put the things that matter to us in there is not only disheartening, it is inherently wrong,” Babrove said. “And I think it sends a bad message, a type of message that says we are disposable, and so are the things that matter to us.”
ChildNet CEO Larry Rein told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that when children in Broward and Palm Beach counties are removed from their households by authorities, they will receive the new bags. About 90 children per month enter the foster care system in the two counties, he estimated.
Across the state, thousands of children are in foster care. Though community donations in South Florida will help many local children, Bartleman and Berman said, the state government must take action to serve the needs of all of Florida’s foster kids. Their respective house and senate bills, HB 279 and SB 306, would have ensured that children placed in out-of-home care be given reusable bags. But both of the bills died in committee in March.
“My hope is that this effort will not end here,” Berman said. “My hope is that this grows, and that more partners join us, that the Florida legislature passes this bill, and that together we build something lasting, so that one day no child in Florida has to carry their life in a trash bag again.”
Though Berman’s tenure will end this year, she said that efforts for a senate bill will continue with senator Ileana Garcia, R-Miami. An aide confirmed that Bartleman plans on pushing the bill’s house version again next session.
Community members interested in supporting the cause for luggage donations in South Florida can find a contact sheet for nonprofit partners here.