CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A Charlotte nonprofit saw a problem and created a solution -- brand new technology to help foster kids get what they need. Social workers are calling CAREnow a saving grace.
It’s kind of like Amazon for foster kids: Social workers can “shop” the site to meet emergency needs for kids rather than spending their own money, and the community chips in to make it happen.
Foster kids very often come into foster care with nothing.
"That breaks my heart to see them toting their things in a garbage bag," Shantel Anderson, a social worker in Mecklenburg County, said.
"The children on my caseload are like my children, so my child needs underwear I'm going to go buy him some underwear, "Anderson said. "Myself and a social worker did remove a child and he didn’t have anything, underwear a T-shirt, a toothbrush and because it was nine at night we went to Walmart ourselves and purchased items for him."
Mecklenburg County social workers said they often spend their own money trying to make sure kids have what they need. But now they don’t have to.
Nicole Taylor is the executive director of Congregations for Kids, a nonprofit that works as a liaison to help foster care families and social workers and they created CAREnow.
"CAREnow is a technology platform used to meet [the] immediate needs of children connected to the child welfare system," Taylor explained.
Anderson added CAREnow is "a godsend" for children who otherwise wouldn't have what they need.
"There’s been a lot of news of kids that are displaced -- staying at [a] hotel or at the office and CAREnow has been a part of providing urgent needs so these kids that don’t have anything," Taylor said. "We want to get it to them immediately."
"CAREnow is what I like to call a one-stop shop," Tina Jackson-McLendon, a social worker for seven years who is now a supervisor, said.
Anyone can go on the website and read about the stories of kids in need and what they need, then choose to donate something. Congregations for Kids then works to buy and deliver the items as quickly as possible.
"Everybody can do something, everybody can't be a foster parent but everybody can do something and even something small means the world to a kid in foster care," Jackson-McLendon said.
Since launching in 2020, CAREnow has served more than 2,000 kids and says the need has skyrocketed in the last few months.
"The children just want to be loved, to know that somebody cares for them," Anderson said.
Anyone interested in helping can find out what's needed on the CAREnow website. CAREnow has been so successful they’re getting ready to expand the platform to serve other families and communities across the country.
Contact Michelle Boudin at mboudin@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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