Comforting kids in crisis

When children have to enter a shelter or foster care, they leave behind everything from their favorite stuffed animal to their toothbrush. This is where The Bag Project can make a tangible difference: providing these children with basic necessities and comfort items when they need it most.

Research has shown (The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study or ACE Study), that a person’s cumulative ACEs score or adverse experiences have a strong relationship to a variety of health, social and behavioral problems.

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The Bag Project is transforming the experiences of children navigating through crisis and transition.

We do this in a tangible way: by providing children in crisis with a high-quality, age-appropriate bag filled with basic necessities and comfort items which they may not otherwise receive and, hopefully, lessen the effects of a traumatic experience.

* NJ DCF, 2012
** American Community Survey, 2006

What's In A Bag

Oaks Integrated Care

comfort in action: The Bag Project recipients Provide Bags To Children in Crisis

Clearly children's needs go far beyond what can fit in a bag, but The Bag Project bag filled with necessities and comfort items is a start. It shows them that they matter, that someone cares. Now they have a few items of their own and a bag in which to put them.

Emergency Bags are used when a child is in crisis, removed from an unsafe home, enters foster care or enters a homeless or domestic violence shelter.

Infant Bags are used when an infant is removed from an unsafe home, picked up from a maternity ward, enters foster care or enters a homeless or domestic violence shelter.

Activity Bags are used when a child is waiting for services, waiting for a parent/guardian to receive services or the bag will be used as an ice breaker with a service provider.

Start filling one today.

CASA of Mercer County

The Problem

The Bag Project recipients are existing non-profit organizations who are successfully transforming the lives of children and youth in the greater Mercer County (New Jersey) area. The Bag Project was created to support the work of these non-profit organizations and meet an expressed need for tangible items for children.

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