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community
community
By Allison Joy
IRON RIVER — The Windsor Center has a new tenant. U.P. Foster Closet of Iron County, which collects and distributes supplies to local foster families, now occupies Room 207 of the community center.
Children can become foster children quite suddenly, and local foster families are often needed at a moment’s notice. Board President Jackie VanOss Judd said that sometimes, for example if a child is removed from a home where meth was cooked, the child is unable to bring any belongings when taken from the home.
“If there’s any kind of domestic violence or drug abuse and the cops have been called to a situation where children are involved, CPS is also called and child protective services comes,” Judd explained. “And if the situation is not safe for the children, they need to be removed right then -- that minute, that night, that day.”
The Foster Closet exists to provide immediate assistance to those children and foster families: toothbrushes, clothing, backpacks, winter gear, diapers, cribs, car seats, bottles, and other necessities that help ease a child’s transition during a traumatizing time.
“When the kids come … they’re already coming to you as strangers,” Judd said. “They’re going to be typically traumatized and they want to get comfortable. They don’t want to go out shopping. So that’s when we step up and we help out.”
She said that socks, underwear, pajamas and toothpaste are “the big ones.” And while foster families are provided an initial clothing allowance, Judd said it can sometimes take up to six months to receive that money.
Judd ran U.P. Foster Closet Marquette out of her own home for four years, before moving to Iron County last August. She started downstate with the foster closet program, where there are now 23 closets independently operating under the umbrella of Foster Closet of Michigan.
In Iron County, the Foster Closet board consists of Judd, Darla Bonno as vice president, Dawn Pisoni (who also manages the Windsor Center) as secretary, and Kelsey Boehmke as treasurer.
“Sometimes there’s an emergency situation where [a child is] pulled out last minute,” Bonno said. “The foster family does not have time to prepare for these things, and this is where a foster closet really comes in handy.”
Judd said all four women have had some experience with the foster care system. She herself ran a recruitment and training program for foster families during her time working at Great Lakes Recovery and has also fostered 25 children since she became licensed in 2005. She has seen firsthand how difficult it can be for families to respond during a child’s time of crisis.
According to 2020 data from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, there are an estimated 13,000 children in foster care throughout the state.
Children fostered in rural communities face additional hurdles. For example, there is only one county (Menominee) in the entire Upper Peninsula that uses volunteer court-appointed advocates to represent the interests of children in the foster care system.
There is also a shortage of families, Judd said, and children in rural areas are more likely to be placed with families far outside their home communities. Yet, Judd said, remaining local is essential to minimizing trauma for children in the system.
“The kids suffer with a shortage of foster homes,” she said. A different county means a different school with different peers.
“If there’s a family in that county, [the child] can stay in their same school district. They can potentially ride the same bus. Keeping the continuum of care, whether it’s doctor or dentist or anything like that, is ideal.”
No longer doling out donations from her basement, Judd is happy to have found a community space from which to operate in Iron County. There are currently five outposts that make up U.P Foster Closet in Iron, Dickinson, Delta, Menominee and Marquette counties. Each one operates as its own independent 501(c)3 nonprofit.
“We’re all independently run, and we have varying rules based upon geographics. Like if Iron County did a fundraiser for Iron County kids, I don’t think it would be fair to go to Baraga with that money -- so there’s different rules,” Judd explained. “If it’s a clothing donation, we don’t mind helping and holding hands across the U.P. and helping all foster children, but sometimes it’s local and it has to stay local … If we’re asking for money from our community, we want it to stay in our community.”
Donations from U.P. Foster Closet Marquette helped get the Iron County operation started. In the coming months, Judd hopes to recruit local businesses willing to host donations drives or place donation boxes on site.
For now, residents interested in making donations can call or text 310-529-5121 or email upfcironcounty@gmail.com. Monetary donations or gift cards can be mailed to UP Foster Closet of Iron County at 612 W. Adams Street Suite 207, Iron River, MI 49935.
The group is also on Facebook as U.P. Foster Closet of Iron County. More information on U.P. Foster Closet is available at upfostercloset.org.
“Going into a foster situation, there’s always a lot of trauma,” Judd said. “We want to have the least amount of trauma for the kids as possible.”