Sule Foundation Partners with Assistance League to Serve Kids in Kinship Foster Care

Assistance League Volunteer Rose Habegger sorts items for kids in kinship foster care.

​Thousands of greater Cincinnati children are removed from their parents’ care each year. With growing frequency, they are placed with “next of kin,” who often accept parental duties with little time to prepare and limited financial means.
 
The Elsa Heisel Sule Foundation has committed $15,000 to Assistance League of Greater Cincinnati to help these children and their caregivers. Assistance League’s Kinship Foster Care Program was established in 2017 with a seed grant from the Haile Foundation to provide diapers, socks, wipes and undergarments. Over the last five years, 3,927 children have been served.
 
“Our families express to us how blessed they are to receive the new briefs, t-shirts, camisoles and socks provided by Assistance League in addition to the used clothing we provide, with every visit,” said Karen Gibbs, founder and director of Jack’s Closet in Anderson. “The money saved on these items allows them to have money for food, medicine and to help pay the heating bills."   
 
The supplies are also distributed through Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Burnet and Liberty Township locations, where children are evaluated before they’re placed in foster or kinship care.
 
The program is the work of sixteen Assistance League volunteers who procure, inventory, pack and deliver items to the three locations. People interested in becoming a volunteer can email [email protected].
 
Primary support for the program is also provided by the Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile Jr., Foundation. The program is also aided by an anonymous foundation and individual contributions, which can be made on the chapter website, assistanceleaguecincinnati.org.
 
The Sule Foundation is a private foundation providing funds to nonprofit organizations in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky for education, the community and the arts. The Sule Foundation engages with its grantees to better understand the organizations it funds and the people they serve, through site visits, developing relationships and reviewing outcomes produced by the nonprofits.
 
Since 1998, Assistance League of Greater Cincinnati has served the unmet needs of 79,500 individual women and children in their time of need. The all-volunteer organization has earned the GuideStar Gold Seal of Transparency for nine consecutive years and works closely with greater Cincinnati public and parochial schools, colleges, hospitals and women’s shelters to fulfill the mission of Transforming Lives through Community Programs.

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