The Beginning of Bridging the Gap

The Gulf Coast Foster Bridge came to be in August of 2018 and was known as the Gulf Coast Closet of Hope at that time. The Closet was housed in a small storage unit, where we stored donations from the community.

Since our beginning, we’ve helped at least 20 foster families in our area by:

· giving 8-10 bunk beds, 10 cribs, and other furniture,

· giving several car seats and strollers,

· giving countless toys, diapers, wipes and clothing for all ages.

We quickly realized this was meant to be more than a closet, so we grew into the Gulf Coast Foster Bridge, with a mission of surrounding foster children with support, love, faith, and guidance by bridging the gap between foster families, biological families, and our community.

We hosted a Sanity Saver drive in February of this year, where we collected paper goods for foster families. The goal was to save the sanity of foster families in this area who said "yes" to a child in need. Sometimes the best way to help is to provide the little things that get forgotten during the chaos. We had a very successful drive and still have items in our Closet to give away.

For the past 3 months, we’ve cooked freezer meals for 12 foster families each month, giving them a healthy dinner to store in their freezer for a busy night. We will continue this each month.

We’ve recruited volunteer babysitters from the community to give foster parents a night out without trying to find money for childcare.

We’ve partnered with a local event planner who creates birthday boxes for our foster kids, filled with cupcakes and other goodies so they’ll feel special on their big day.

In the past few months, we’ve had two foster families in need of bunk beds and one who needed a new stroller. We asked our community for help and received enough donations to purchase each needed item in less than 24 hours.

People in the community are contacting the Gulf Coast Foster Bridge every day, wanting to donate items or volunteer their time. We are still working out of a small storage unit that is busting at the seams. We have run out of room to accept donations so we’re keeping them in our homes in case they are needed, until we are able to move into a larger building.

We’re not here to applaud ourselves over what we’ve done so far. All the glory goes to God and the many blessings He’s sent our way. We couldn’t have done any of this without our amazing community supporting us and we look forward to the big things coming in the future as we all work together to help our foster community!

‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ -Matthew 25:40