The Safe & Sound Initiative works to provide programs, partnerships and campaigns to address crisis in our local youth and support system.
Through our taskforce, partnership teams and advisors, we are getting closer to filling the gaps together. Our goal is to remove barriers and fear from getting the help that is available while providing the youth and caretakers relief and hope.
The basics. We have created pilot programs to help address the very basics of needs that ultimately play a huge role in trauma prevention. In creating these basic needs solutions, we have joined those in the community that are inspired to help, together, as one, achieve what we cannot do alone.
Our fierce commitment to meeting the basic needs attracts those that are also fiercely committed to the basic needs of humanity and equality. Together we achieve vibrance in the midst of darkness and always find a way.
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SAFE & SOUND: CLOTHE THE KIDZ: 2025 PILOT
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About "Clothe the Kidz"
A-Z School Shopping Expierence
This program will be facilitated through the Warren County Public School's special services department. Hike Kidz Foundation will be working directly with the special services liason, who will also be working directly with each school. Once the parent/child have worked with the department, Hike Kidz Foundation will take the received forms provided. This is a pilot program.
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Supporting school supplies
If you would like to get involved with this initiative, please contact us at give@hikekidzfoundation.org. You may also read more below on the ways to help.
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This program reaches our McKinney-Vento Students, Foster children and our unaccounted for.
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UNBURDEN THE TEACHERS UNBURDEN THE CHILDREN PROGRAM
The Hike Kidz Foundation, Unburden The Teachers, Unburden The Children Initiative was established to provide ongoing financial and community support for teachers to directly assist the local children facing poverty and lacking basic necessities. This program reaches our unaccounted for population that are in need, directly.
​Inspired by the teachers who we trust with our children daily. This Initiative makes immediate help possible for the teacher and child in need of relief.
​When you continue to donate to this initiative, your funds will go directly to the local Elementary schools to distribute to the teachers within the established program. This continual support will help in many ways, providing encouragement and empowerment to the teachers and children.
AWARENESS
LOCAL FOSTER CARE AWARENESS
WHEN YOU FOSTER A CHILD
LOVE WINS
WE HAVE A LOCAL FOSTER CARE CRISIS
The ballooning number of foster children in Warren County has reached the level of crisis. There are 52 children in foster care in Warren County, nearly double 2021-2023. The rate of foster children in Warren County is two times higher than the state average. The increased number of children has far outpaced the number of foster parents. This forces the Department of Social Services to ship these children to Therapeutic Foster Care homes all over the state at nearly quadruple the cost (NVD). Having local children spread across the state creates multiple problems. It adds to an already traumatic experience for the child, removing them from their home, school, teams, friends and families. The added distance between children and their parents/caretakers also hinders the likelihood of reunification. It adds more burden on an already overburdened system with social workers having to follow up on and keep tabs on the welfare of these children who are spread across the state.
There are 52 children in Warren County Foster Care, twice the rate of the STATE average.
54% of Children are under the age of 9 years old.
14% of children will spend 3-4 years in the Foster Care System.
Only 3 children put into the foster care system were able to placed with relatives.
take some time and stay with me.
SAFE & SOUND:
EMERGENCY HOUSING CRISIS
We do not have an emergency shelter for teens, for foster children, or for the teens that cannot go home and have no place to come forward to stay in crisis/shelter.
The Crisis
There are currently 73 children that we know of that homeless and enrolled in the Federal Mckinney Vento program. That number is likely double that when accounting for those who may scared or ashamed to communicate their circumstance. There are 52 children in foster care, a number that is double the amount of previous years. That number has overwhelmed the current capacity forcing children to be sent all over the state. It is disheartening when considering the number of children in troubling situations to no fault of their own, and the countless more only a circumstance away from trouble. Unfortunately for these children there is little support. In Warren County there are no family shelters or transitional housing options, there are no foster or group homes, and there are not enough foster parents to answer there call.
The Solutions
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Market hard to potential foster parents
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Add incentives and support for foster parents
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Support efforts to create well run shelters that can house children, and families with children
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Educate families on the resources that are available. Only 1 in 5 households who qualify for Housing Choice Vouchers take advantage of them (housinginitiative.org)
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Support partnerships between Virginia Housing and Developers to bring transitional and affordable housing to the area
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Develop supportive transitional housing units that educate on budgeting and help support families getting back on their feet
Hike Kidz Foundation is Partnered with Hike Construction, Rockledge Developers, Faith Works & Family Promise to help with the local housing crisis immediate needs and critical planning.