NONPROFIT SPOTLIGHT: Kind to Kids Foundation

By Amanda Schimmel

Children enter the world with the right to experience a loving and caring environment, and this exemplary nonprofit organization does just that. With roughly 550 children currently in Delaware’s foster care system, Kind to Kids Foundation’s mission is to provide children in need with education and skills for a bright future.

Established in 2008 to help children in foster care, President and Founder Caroline Jones explains, “It has been a journey of hope and inspiration, and to see how our services impact the children we serve makes it all worth it.” Kind to Kids became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in 2011 and has since served over 17,000 children in foster care and poverty. The nonprofit offers two signature programs that encourage success in the children’s futures, and ease the pain of entering foster care.

Kind to Kids’ UGrad Academy is a case management program that helps children and youth in foster care succeed in school, graduate from high school, and obtain higher education opportunities such as college and trade school. Oneon-one tutoring and individualized guidance coupled with a highly trained staff are the source for the program’s 97% graduation rate—a feat to boast about. Jones says, “UGrad Academy is a solution that drives collaboration and efficiencies across the child welfare and educational systems to support Delaware’s most vulnerable children.”

Moreover, Kind to Kids recently expanded UGrad’s reach to include the first grade. Jones explains, “The earlier we can help the children to give them a strong foundation, the more impactful it is. It’s dramatic when you see just how much the program helps them succeed. Making those strides is really exciting.”

When first entering foster care, Jones notes that many of the children are frightened as social workers and police come to remove them from their homes to safety. They come with a trash bag for the children to place their personal items. To ease this transitional period, Kind to Kids started the My Blue Duffel program in 2012 to provide a child with a comforting blue duffel bag to hold their belongings, a blanket, book, stuffed animal, socks, crayons, and more. Each year over 500 of these duffels are handed out to children entering foster care by social workers, first responders, and hospital emergency rooms, spreading the message that they are wanted and loved. Jones remarks, “I realized that we need to do more as a society to help the children, and the duffels give them a message of hope, love, and compassion when they’re being taken out of their abusive or neglectful home.”

What some take for granted may be foreign for children in foster care, like celebrating birthdays or graduations. Kind to Kids works to ensure that each milestone is not only acknowledged but celebrated with cake, gifts, and people who care. For UGrad students, graduation is hosted each June to commemorate a culmination of dedication and perseverance to one’s studies. Birthday celebrations are also held to the utmost importance as a means to reassure the children of their worth and spread some much-needed joy and happiness. Above all else, the Kind to Kids Foundation is changing lives, one child at a time.

Amanda Schimmel currently serves as a communications and events assistant at the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce. Graduating from the University of Delaware in spring 2023, she is pursuing an Honors Economics and English degree.