The Children’s Foundation of America’s (CFA) annual Back-to-School drive for foster youth is back! With the 2021-2022 school year around the corner and schools going back to in-person learning, CFA is determined to provide foster youth all the tools they need to succeed this year. CFA understands the disadvantage that foster youth are faced with and believe the lack of new school supplies should not be something they have to worry about when it comes to starting the new school year.

Foster youth are faced with inherent barriers to academic success such as parental neglect, emotional, physical and/or psychological issues, and/or inadequate adult support. Because of these barriers, foster youth fall victim to lower test scores, lack of motivation, and further mental health issues. Lack of school preparedness adds to the negative outcomes that these youth face.

According to the American Bar Association, “when a child is in the foster care or juvenile justice systems, the child often experiences instability in both the living and school environments. School has the potential to be a steadying force for good, providing stability and supports to promote learning.” Creating a stable learning environment for these youth starts with providing them the proper supplies so they have the foundation to reach academic success.

Consider joining our Back-to-School campaign to help prepare foster youth and provide them with a stable learning environment!

How You Can Help

CFA is collecting the following new and unused donations:

• Backpacks
• College/Wide ruled Paper
• Composition books
• Spiral Notebooks
• #2 Pencils
• Pencil Sharpeners
• Rulers
• Mechanical Pencils
• Erasers
• Highlighters
• Pens
• 3-Ring Binders
• Binder Dividers

Back-to-School donations can be dropped off at our warehouse Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at at our warehouse located at 1326 W. 9th St. Upland, CA 91786.

Purchase Items from Our Amazon Wish List

As an alternative, you can also purchase items of our Amazon Wish List here and ship directly to our warehouse for distribution.

Volunteer

If you’re interested in volunteering to compile back to school care packages, please contact bcalderon@trinityys.org or 909.426.0773 ext. 236.

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Isabel Millward-Pena, Communications Specialist
Isabel contributes content for our social media, blog, newsletters and promotional materials. She recently earned a bachelor’s degree in English from California State University San Bernardino and is currently working on her master’s degree. Isabel began working with our team as an intern and, luckily for us, never left. Prior to her work at CFA, she was a substitute instructional aid and a supervisor at Starbucks. She has also volunteered as an aid at local elementary schools and notably achieved “Partner of the Quarter” at Starbucks in 2017.