Backpack Drive

Our parish's Justice for Jesus Ministry focuses on initiatives that promote the Corporal Works of Mercy and the annual Backpack Project addresses the Corporal Works of clothing the naked and giving shelter to the homeless.

This project involves collecting backpacks filled with some basic necessities for children going into emergency foster care.  These filled backpacks are donated to an organization called Fostering Care which distributes them to local Department of Children and Families offices in Lynn and surrounding communities.

Sadly, the children who find themselves in this situation are removed from their homes or picked up after school without warning and with only the clothes on their backs.  In an ideal situation, they can be immediately placed in foster care, but often, they must stay in DCF care until a home can be found – sometimes late in the night.  The contents of the backpacks – pjs, a toothbrush, a comb, clothes for the next day or two, a stuffed animal or sticker book -- help these children get through this traumatic period, whether they are sitting in a DCF office or placed in a strange home, and gives them something that is theirs at a time when they have nothing familiar.