The Coconino County Board of Supervisors recently approved a grant for $50,000 to Arizona Helping Hands toward the expansion of the organization’s Basic Needs Program into Coconino County and other parts of northern Arizona.

“Each year, more than 14,000 children are in the Arizona Department of Child Safety foster care system and many of them arrive at their foster homes with nothing more than the clothes they are wearing,” says Maureen Noe, President and CEO of Arizona Helping Hands. “We are grateful for the support from Coconino County as we work to bring the essentials to more children in need.”

There is often no time or opportunity to pack clothing and other essential items during the sudden transition many children face when entering the foster care system. The Basic Needs Program focuses on providing those essential goods, as well as ensuring that children have a safe place to sleep, by providing age-appropriate beds and cribs.

The grant will be used to support operations and to purchase essential items for the Basic Needs program, which serves children up to 21 years old as they are placed with new foster families or as needs arise. These basic needs include ensuring children have a safe place to sleep by providing twin beds, cribs, and linens, as well as essential items like clothing, diapers, wipes, educational activities, and personal hygiene kits.

The funding, which comes from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) will also provide support for expanding services in Coconino County and other parts of northern Arizona in 2023. In December, the Coconino County Board of Supervisors approved the disbursement of grant funding to organizations to expedite pandemic response and recovery on the economic and public health fronts. Arizona Helping Hands is one of nineteen qualified community organizations evaluated and chosen for funding. The organization is 1 of 7 organizations to be approved for providing support to vulnerable populations.

In 2022, Arizona Helping Hands helped more than 3,500 children across the state and distributed 1,765 beds through the Basic Needs Program. Each year, the organization’s volunteers donate about $200,000 in economic value to the mission of helping children in foster care. Arizona Helping Hands has built their reputation, becoming a top referral partner for the Department of Child Safety when directing new foster families or homes to local resources.

Learn more about the organization’s mission and how to donate at azhelpinghands.org.

About Arizona Helping Hands:
Founded in 1998, the mission of Arizona Helping Hands is to support the foster care community by providing essentials to benefit children in foster care. As Arizona’s largest provider of essential resources to children in foster care, Arizona Helping Hands supports children with items including beds, cribs, clothing, diapers, and hygiene items. Every year, Arizona Helping Hands hosts a Back-to-School drive to provide backpacks filled with school supplies to help children succeed in school. The Arizona Helping Hands Birthday Dreams program ensures each child has a birthday cake and a personalized gift to open, which helps raise self-esteem by showing children they are special and loved. The organization also provides state-required home safety items to help families become licensed providers, ensuring they can offer a safe home environment.