Helen's Hope Chest

Helen's Hope Chest has three programs supporting individuals in, or aging out of, foster care. Through its original program, Helen's Hope Chest provides clothing, school supplies, and other basic needs items such as diapers and hygiene supplies for foster and kinship children from infancy through 18 years of age. In addition to providing this year-round support, during the holiday season through the jakelle's christmas box event, more than 7000 gifts are distributed to their clients. Youth aging out of the foster care system receive support from foster360, which offers wraparound services to provide them with the tools, education, and mindset to succeed. This includes safe housing in a trauma-informed community-centric environment. The americorps program of Helen's Hope Chest is a grant geared specifically to place mesa residents as direct service delivery professionals to the Helen's Hope Chest and foster 360 programs. This lowers overhead costs and allows a larger share of resources devoted to directly impacting the child/youth and their foster family.