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Coat Drive For Kentucky Foster Children Nets 1000+ Donations

Nadezhda Prokudina
/
123rf Stock Photo

State employees along with officials in county attorneys’ offices have collected more than one thousand coats and hoodies for children in Kentucky’s foster care program. 

Department for Income Support Commissioner Bryan Hubbard says social workers are authorized by law to rescue children from danger or imminent threat of harm.

“They might be doing it in the midst of a difficult circumstance, particularly in the winter for which they are not equipped.  And that is with a basic necessity of a coat to make sure that when that child is taken out of that home, they at least get to leave warm and stay warm as long as they’ll fit in it.  And that is the first initial act of being able to provide a basic need for a child who is in the lurch,” said Hubbard.

Hubbard says the number of children in out-of-home care went from 7.500 last year to a record high 10,000 this year.  He says much of the increase is a result of the opioid crisis across Kentucky. 

Hubbard worries that number could increase over the next few years until a move to address drug dependency becomes more clinical than punitive. 

Hubbard says the coat drive means a lot to participants and recipients.  “It’s nice to see demonstrations of love occur organically without a rule, a mandate, or a line item in the budget that allocates the funds to make it happen from the legislature.”

Hubbard estimated the value of the coats and hoodies collected at $22,000. 

© 2018 WEKU

Stu Johnson is a reporter/producer at WEKU in Lexington, Kentucky.
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