SUCCESS STORY
The Bloom Closet
At The Bloom Closet—Bloom’s statewide resource center for foster youth—thousands of children are provided with clothes, shoes, backpacks filled with school supplies, personal hygiene items, and more. The entire Bloom Closet experience, from the positive store staff to the high-quality items, restores dignity to children who are distressed and often devastated. The Bloom Closet resembles a mini-department store and has racks filled with thousands of options for clothing, shoes, and supplies. Oftentimes, the foster children who shop at The Bloom Closet don’t realize that it’s not a store; they comment that it’s the nicest place they’ve ever seen. One group of teens living in a group home asked for "gift cards" to The Bloom Closet as Christmas presents—not realizing that everything is completely free. The Bloom Closet provides free items for foster youth of all ages. With less than 24 hours' notice, Bloom has been able to provide essentials for an emergency infant placement—a crib, changing table, diapers, formula, clothing, blankets, bottles, and more. For foster youth headed back to school, The Bloom Closet provides free backpacks, school supplies, clothing, and shoes. When a teen mom in Bloom’s foster care program came into care with her infant, The Bloom Closet provided clothing and necessities for her and also for her daughter. When this foster youth graduated high school and entered an ILP program, Bloom provided donated furnishings and supplies for her apartment, and The Bloom Closet provided clothing and other items for her toddler. Additionally, by advocating for the needs of foster youth in the business community, The Bloom Closet was able to secure for hera$2,500 college scholarship. Service demand for The Bloom Closet increases by 26% each year. In 2019, The Bloom Closet served 4,500 foster youth from 90 Georgia counties. In 2021, Bloom plans to launch the Bloom Closet Express, a mobile extension of this highly-successful program that will make this program accessible to children all over Georgia.