Jaci Marken and her husband are foster parents who recognized a critical gap in community support for foster families, biological parents and caseworkers.
"Foster care is hard. Emotionally, mentally, and physically, it's a lot on foster parents and foster kids, and biological parents, and caseworkers," Marken said.
"Things like clothes and beds and carseats and diapers should not be a main issue that they're having to deal with. So we want to just take that off their plates," she said.
Marken started the Foster Care Closet of Jackson through the Arbor Church's "Fostering Hope" ministry just a few months ago.
"They've already been doing things in the foster care space, and me and a couple of friends were like 'hey, we could start a foster care closet as part of this ministry.' And it just has kind of come together," Marken said.
The closet operates differently from typical community resources - it's not open for public shopping. Instead, it serves as a direct resource for caseworkers when they identify specific needs.
"So we're just directly, a direct resource for the case workers. So foster care agencies have reached out, like when a case worker sees a need, like for a bed or a car seat, or clothes for either a foster child or the family. And then we do our best to fill that need," Marken said.
Trevor Kirkland, a caseworker at Family Service and Children's Aid, uses the service and sees its impact firsthand.
"Poverty and lack of resources sometimes can be a barrier for families. So having this option in Jackson is really helpful to help parents kind of meet some of those needs that they might not have," Kirkland said.
"It helps a lot in just getting that and knowing that someone is there to help us. To let us know that our family is not alone and they have resources out there that are willing to help," he said.
The closet stocks items through donations and charity drives, including clothes, shoes, toys, carseats and beds - all items that can create significant financial strain for families suddenly caring for foster children.
"A lot of times, especially for relative placement, kinship placement, it's called, they're not necessarily prepared for all the clothes and the bed and whatever that they might need and that's a lot of money up front," Marken said.
Marken hopes that through word of mouth and continuous donations, the Foster Care Closet can fulfill its mission.
"We just want to bring a little light and a little hope to part of the Jackson community that frankly could use a little light and a little hope," she said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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