Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
The Young Caring for Our Young Foundation is often inspired by stories. Working with educators and community advocates, they've learned about families living in motels, teenagers living out of their cars, high school students working past midnight to provide for a household and brothers sharing a single pair of shoes.
These stories have broken the hearts of those at the foundation and influenced their actions. In 2022, they created the KIND Fund to help those in situations like these. As of today, it's provided clothing for over 3,600 children — and it's beginning its next chapter.
On Feb. 2, Young Caring for Our Young announced the release of its new KIND Fund app — available now on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
"This app is a game-changer for our foundation," Young Caring for Our Young director Tami Olsen said. "It will streamline communication to educators, volunteers and donors to help the KIND Fund expand and serve more kids in need."
Educators use the KIND Fund by identifying students in need of clothes, shoes, coats or other items. Once the educator details the child's needs, the foundation processes the request and provides a volunteer with a $150 gift card. The volunteer then shops for the student and delivers the items back to the school — where the educator gives them to the student.
Before the app launched, all requests had to be processed through Young Caring for Our Young's website, thinkcaring.org. The app will now be the primary way to engage with the program — which will allow the foundation's team to send push notifications and direct messages to those working with the KIND Fund.
"This initiative is becoming everything we hoped it would be," Olsen said. "Our goal is to make KIND Fund shopping easy and accessible to everyone. Being able to communicate with our volunteers and educators in real time makes that possible."
Since its inception, the KIND Fund has had a noticeable impact on those working in education — especially for family and community advocates at schools. Mount Ogden Junior High School community coordinator Vanessa Bonilla said that before the KIND Fund, all clothing needs were taken care of by the student resource center.
"My first interaction [with the KIND fund] was kind of reading the flyer," Bonilla said. "It seemed a little too good to be true because it was just like 'Any educator can fill out this application and we can get them $150 worth of new clothes?'"
After receiving the clothing from Bonilla's first KIND Fund experience, she has continued to utilize the program to better serve her students and expand on what the resource center is capable of.
The KIND Fund is also widely brought up during school district meetings. Kaylee Buck, a family advocate at North Davis Junior High and North Layton Junior High, said the Davis Education Foundation was the first to tell her about the initiative and that she frequently talks about it with other advocates in the district.
"It just shows that the school is willing to help with more than just academics," Buck said. "We understand that there's basic needs to be met. It's very difficult to come to school and learn and succeed if you're hungry or if you don't have warm clothes to wear when it's cold outside."
The KIND Fund is currently in Davis, Weber, Ogden, Morgan, Box Elder and Cache counties in Utah as well as Cassia and Minidoka counties in Idaho. The foundation is looking to expand the program's reach and has announced that they will be bringing the KIND Fund to Bonneville County in Idaho as well as Missoula County in Montana.
Search "The KIND Fund" in your app finder to start helping Kids In Need.
