Resources of Hope prepares for mobile pantry program

For foster families throughout Johnson County, Resources of Hope is a pillar of support when difficulties arise.

Foster parents with new placements can find clothing, toys, even beds and cribs. Programs for families and kids provide camaraderie and connections to others in similar situations. A special program helps provide gifts for foster kids’ birthdays.

Getting to the nonprofit’s Whiteland headquarters is easy for local families. But families from around Indiana often travel for hours to get the help they need.

“We have people who drive two hours, 2 1/2 hours to get here. They drive that distance because there isn’t anything like Resources of Hope between their county and ours,” said Renae Furnee, executive director of Resources of Hope. “The fact they are able to drive so far is amazing, but I know there are more people who can’t drive that who need our help.”

So soon, Resources of Hope will come to them.

The organization is preparing to launch Butterfly Blessings, a mobile closet able to deliver clothing, shoes, socks, underwear, diapers, car seats, cribs, bedding and more to counties throughout the state. The mobile unit, which is expected to launch in the spring of 2025, will allow Resources of Hope to serve an additional 400 kids and 133 families.

Many places don’t have the services Resources of Hope can provide, Furnee said. With more than 20,000 kids in Indiana in foster care each year, it’s vital to provide support for them and foster parents, so everyone can succeed.

“It’s one step closer to reaching the thousands of kids we have in foster care and helping to provide for them,” Furnee said. “At the same time, it lets the families caring for them know that they’re part of a much larger group that supports them.”

Resources of Hope was founded to remedy an issue that kept coming up in the foster community. When a young person enters foster care, they often arrive at their foster family with only the clothing on their backs, Furnee said.

The organization operates a clothing closet for young people of all ages and sizes. Kids, as well as their foster or kinship families, can come and pick out outfits, toys, blankets and more to make their transition a little bit easier.

Other programs, such as support groups, outreach events and the Birthday Blessing distribution, gives comfort during a traumatic time.

Furnee and the Resources of Hope board have been discussing creating a mobile service for years, but only recently secured the funding and equipment to do so.

They were able to get a small bus to serve as their transport, and have been working to stockpile additional items to serve clients around the state.

In doing so, though, they realized a problem: they didn’t have the storage to organize the clothing, equipment and toys they were collecting.

“We are bursting at the seams. We serve an average of 70 kids each month, so that’s a lot of extras we have to have storage area for,” Furnee said. “We knew the first thing we had to do to get this launched was get more storage space.”

Thankfully, a solution presented itself. A group from this year’s class of Leadership Johnson County Signature Program offered to help. Participants in the program meet once a month to focus on different aspects of leadership. The centerpiece of the program is the group project, where class members break off into small groups and create projects that would benefit the community.

One of the groups, Legacy of Hope, helped Resources of Hope purchase and refurbish a shipping container to use as storage.

“With the recent acquisition of the mini-bus and shipping container storage unit, we are truly blessed to be in a position to advance our mission of walking jointly with foster and kinship care families and kiddos throughout Indiana, and to provide both the physical and emotional resources they need and deserve,” said Tony Badolato, board president of Resources of Hope and a member of the Legacy of Hope project.

Legacy of Hope and Resources of Hope found a collection of enthusiastic community partners to help, including Patriot Products, Modern Woodmen Financial Planning, Resurrection Lutheran Church and the Branigin Foundation.

In celebration of the new storage unit, they recruited Indianapolis artist Kierra Ready to decorate it with a colorful mural. Ready is the owner of Free Mind Creations, a company that creates paint by numbers murals to bring people together for a common cause.

When she was presented the opportunity to do a mural on the shipping container for Resources of Hope, she enthusiastically agreed. The organization’s work aligns perfectly with her passion for using art to build and strengthen communities, she said.

Ready’s design incorporates Resources of Hope’s signature green color and weaves in elements of nature, symbolizing growth and community, she said. The phrase “Together we are inspiring hope” is prominently displayed to represent the powerful community work being done by Resources of Hope.

On June 15, more than 20 volunteers of all ages came out and completed the mural in just five hours, with paint donated by Sherwin-Williams in Greenwood.

“Paint by numbers murals are a great and fun way to bring people together, allowing everyone to contribute to a beautiful and meaningful piece of art,” Ready said.

With the storage unit in place, and already partially filled with items, Furnee is working with Indiana’s Department of Child Services to lay the infrastructure for Butterfly Blessings. Resources of Hope will work with the department to identify counties to work in. The Department of Child Services will then contact foster families in that county with details.

Families will fill out an online order form, and Resources of Hope will load up the bus with the items requested.

“We’ll meet at a central location in their county, and then the families will come to us and get those items,” Furnee said.

Butterfly Blessings has been a rewarding project to see come together, Furnee said. At the same time, much more work is needed to show foster children and families the love they need.

To do so, Resources of Hope needs the continued support of the community.

“We can do better. We can do more. God calls us to help the vulnerable and that’s what we’re trying to do by launching our mobile closet initiative,” Furnee said. “We can’t do it alone though. We need funds to increase the gaps in our inventory. We need funds and gas cards to help with the bus and we will need volunteers to help pack orders next year when we extend our service to other communities.”