My NeighbOR connects foster families with goods and services donated by their neighbors
Brandon and Kellie Smith weren’t looking to become foster parents, but the foster care system came to them. In 2015, there was a child in need, and the Smiths answered the call.
“We didn’t know a lot about what we were getting into,” said Kellie Smith, “which is probably typical for most people when they begin their foster care journey.”
The Saint Helens couple now have seven children living under their roof, including three foster youths and four biological children.
“It’s wonderfully wild, which is what we always say,” Smith said.
It is especially wild now, with Smith trying to keep up with distance learning and more than 100 emails she said she’s received from the children’s five different schools — while struggling to figure out meals for all the kids with the family’s limited income.
Due to Oregon’s social-distancing guidelines, the family temporarily closed its bowling center, Oregon Trail Lanes, on March 13. The only income the family has left are the foster care youth stipends from the state. Smith said the base rate for a youth stipend is $600 a month per foster youth, but it can be more if a child has special needs.
“The stipends are paying our mortgage,” Smith said, “so now we have to figure out how to pay for food.”
The Smiths are dealing with many of the same issues as other families during this pandemic, including long waits for unemployment payments and complicated applications for small-business loans, but COVID-19 has added another layer of stress to their already complicated lives.
“You’re already dealing with kids who can spin out easily or feel like they’re not being loved,” Smith said. “Now, you don’t have the benefit of saying it’s going to be OK.”
The nonprofit group Every Child Oregon is partnering with the Oregon Department of Human Services to help foster families such as the Smiths navigate the extra challenges created during this pandemic.
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The newly formed My NeighbOR emergency response system is connecting foster families and youths, who have specific requests, with goods and services donated by community members in their same ZIP code. In My NeighbOR’s first month, donors met the needs, or are in the process of meeting the needs, of 500 Oregon families and youths.
Ben Sand, CEO of Every Child’s parent company, The Contingent, said more than 1,200 families have donated specific items or gift cards through the emergency system.
“It’s just an incredible thing to watch families say I have that thing, I can donate, I can give, I’m willing to do whatever’s necessary to care for these families in my neighborhood,” he said.
Every Child, which oversees the recruitment of general-applicant foster and adoptive families in Oregon, has hired additional employees during this epidemic to help match community needs with donations.
Donors are asked to sign up on the My NeighbOR website to be contacted when a need arises in their area. Sand said the most pressing needs are grocery store gift cards, diapers and wipes, sanitizing products, and laptops.
Every Child is staffing 46 anchor sites all around Oregon where donors can drop off the items and families in need can pick them up once they are sanitized. Background-checked delivery drivers are also available to drop off items to people who can’t drive to the closest anchor site.
If community members don’t have specific items to donate from the list, they can create “flash boxes” filled with fun activities and supplies to support families who have kids who can’t leave home.
As for the Smiths, they requested some basic art supplies.
One of their foster youths has struggled with depression during the coronavirus shutdown, so Kellie Smith decided an art project might be a good distraction from the isolation and loneliness of social distancing for the teen.
The My NeighbOR system responded with a package of new canvases, paintbrushes, acrylic paint and accessories, which arrived by Amazon delivery.
“I was taken aback,” Smith said.
Smith said foster families are accustomed to receiving “hand-me-down” items, so the teen was thrilled to receive something new, telling the foster mom: “This isn’t just someone donating half-empty paint in Tupperware and I have to sort through it, knowing it’s someone’s discarded leftovers.’”
My NeighbOR donations are not required to be new, but Sand said new or gently used items are preferred.
“Our perspective is it communicates a level of dignity and generosity,” he said. “If new is a possibility, it does feel different to open something fresh.”
New or used laptops are a popular request right now. Under social-distancing guidelines, the Smith family has temporarily switched all visits with their foster children’s biological parents to Zoom meetings or phone conversations. They are following the same rules for the children’s counseling sessions, doctor visits and meetings with biological siblings.
“It was frustrating at first for bio parents who were used to regular contact,” Smith said. “It was hard for them to understand we’re just protecting the family and following orders.”
The three youngest children now have up to 20 Zoom meetings or phone calls a week among the three of them. The family is sharing Smith’s laptop and several school-issued Chromebooks, but the Smiths are still a couple short.
My NeighbOR organizers are attempting to collect 200 laptops for foster families in need. At this point, they’ve collected 40. The group teamed up with Free Geek, a Portland nonprofit computer refurbishing company, to ensure that donated laptops and tablets are ready for their new owners.
Free Geek is facing its own overwhelming demand for its services since COVID-19 forced the closure of schools and workplaces. Free Geek’s marketing specialist Charlie d’Eve said the company has experienced a 4,000% spike in requests for refurbished computers, laptops and tablets from different community partners and customers.
A number of bunk bed requests have also come through the My NeighbOR system. Sand said there have been about a dozen requests, with one family asking for a three-person bunk because the parents didn’t have a place for all three children to sleep.
“A lot of families are just feeling this need for respite,” Sand said, “because there can be a lot of anxiety in one spot when a child is not living with their biological family, especially when they’re not able to have the same agency and exercise all that energy that’s inside.”
Kellie Smith said Easter was a perfect example of how even small donations from the community can make a big difference for foster parents like her. Every Child made sure each youth in the family received a matching Easter basket delivered to their door.
“It was an amazing amount of stress being taken off the shoulders of foster parents,” Smith said. “It was fair and even, and everyone was happy.”
HOW TO HELP
If you want to become a donor with the My NeighbOR emergency response system, you can sign up on its website .
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