To be able to provide ALL children entering foster care in Nottingham with a My Bag we need to raise £20,000 a year from all fundraising activities.

When foster children come into care for the first time, they often have few or no personal belongings that they can call their own. At My Bag we know these children deserve better than that and we want to eradicate this situation starting in our home, the city of Nottingham and now we have spread further into Nottinghamshire too!

To help foster children have a more positive experience, we plan to provide a holdall with a variety of items inside it that they can call their own for as long as they wish to, and to take it with them should they move. 

My Bag is a large, gender neutral in colour, holdall stuffed with a teddy bear, a blanket, a colouring or note book, crayons and also another large collapsible holdall for any personal possessions they may have. My Bag wants children in foster care to feel like children, and we believe this is an important first step in doing this and it will hopefully instil some self esteem at a very difficult time in their lives. The Foster system faces many challenges, so by working with My Bag we can help eradicate one of them. My Bag hopefully goes someway to help children feel like they belong.

There is also an additional, but crucial, benefit for the social worker who is tasked with collecting the child and taking them to their foster carer for the first time. Rather than going to see the child empty handed the bag can provide a focal point should there be any waiting time once the child has been collected.