Helping kids with a "pathway to comfort"

When children are removed from their homes and enter the child welfare system, it’s understandably a difficult experience. And it’s not made any easier by having to quickly pack belongings in a plastic trash bag.

Over 400 children enter the system in North Carolina each month, and we want to support them right from the very beginning. This is why Healthy Blue Care Together joined forces with the nonprofit Comfort Cases to create the new Pathway to Comfort program.

Providing support and comfort

Pathway to Comfort provides backpacks – called Comfort Cases – to children and youth entering child welfare, filled with brand new personal care items like pajamas, socks, a hygiene kit, a book, a blanket, stuffed animal, and other age-appropriate supplies, plus a large, foldable duffle bag for their other belongings.

Through the Pathway to Comfort program, local Department of Social Services (DSS), agencies, and nonprofits serving children entering child welfare can order Comfort Cases and duffle bags for local children at no cost to them.

Together with local DSS, Healthy Blue Care Together is making sure North Carolina’s children and youth in foster care receive the support they need from Day One.

It’s not just a bag – it’s hope and comfort. It’s having something new of their own. It’s feeling seen and knowing that someone out there assembled this bag together just for them, and that person is rooting for them. It’s one way to make a difficult situation just a bit easier.