Rob Scheer and the Creation of ‘Comfort Cases’ for Children in Foster Care
Rob Scheer joins Health Gig to talk about his life growing up in foster care, and how it lead to him founding Comfort Cases. Youth in foster care often have only a trash bag of items, and Comfort Cases aims to prevent that feeling of neglect and disposability. From toothbrushes to stuffies, Comfort Cases provides cases filled with necessities for an extra bit of comfort and dignity. Join us to hear Rob’s insight on the foster care system and how we all can help children in foster homes.
More on Rob Scheer and Comfort Cases:
Website: comfortcases.org
Instagram: instagram.com/comfortcases
Facebook: facebook.com/comfortcases
Twitter: twitter.com/ComfortCases
Tiktok: tiktok.com/@comfort_cases
FOLLOW HEALTH GIG:
Learn more about BB&R and Achieving Optimal Health Conference by visiting BBRconsulting.us
Quotes:
64% of children come into foster care because of the word ‘neglect’. Neglect is defined in every state differently. I am here to tell you the word neglect is poverty. Rob Scheer
We have to eliminate trash bags for children who are in foster care. And with our organization, Comfort Cases, we have delivered over 185,000 cases. Rob Scheer
Children enter foster care because of a choice that someone else made. Rob Scheer
Show Notes:
Rob Scheer: I was the youngest of ten kids and my mother had been married six times. I lived in and out of every shelter in Maryland, Virginia and D.C.
Rob Scheer: I get sad because I lost my sisters and my brothers because they were never able to find that grit with inside themselves as I had found.
Rob Scheer: I decided to stop blaming the system. And do everything I could in my power to help change the system.
Rob Scheer: At the age of 12, went into the system carrying a trash bag up the driveway.
Rob Scheer: They informed me that I couldn't live there any longer because they weren't going to receive a check, my whole life just shattered at that moment. And I literally became homeless living on the streets of Northern Virginia.
Rob Scheer: After about a day or two, living on the streets under the bridge, I decided that I was going to continue to go to high school. And so I would hide my trash bag and I would walk into school.
Rob Scheer: I realize that if you looked at me, if you truly acknowledged me, then you would have to accept that you failed me.
Rob Scheer: This is not for everybody, but I have a faith and I have a faith that my Heavenly Father truly, truly had a reason for me to be there.
Rob Scheer: We have 438,000 children in our foster care system. We know for a fact that 30,000 of those kids will age out this year and 70% of them will become homeless.
Rob Scheer: Statistics show us that 72% of our death row inmates were actually in foster care.
Rob Scheer: I joined the United States Navy.
Rob Scheer: I have emergency surgery and the Navy gave me a one-way plane ticket back to Dulles Airport. I literally became that homeless kid again.
Rob Scheer: I went back to my favorite place, my safe place, the public library.
Rob Scheer: I just happened to walk into a bank and I interviewed for a position, another act of kindness, and I was hired on the spot.
Rob Scheer: It was about what you all thought of me. And I didn't want anybody to think about the fact that I used to be a kid in foster care. And then I met him. I met Reece.
Rob Scheer: I decided at that moment that this was the person and I was not going to be ashamed. And so I just gradually, you know, talked about my partner.
Rob Scheer: Four of my kids arrived 13 years ago and they were six months, two, two, and four. And my husband and I, two white men getting ready to adopt four black kids in the District of Columbia was not heard of.
Rob Scheer: Children who enter foster care enter because of a choice that someone else made.
Rob Scheer: We have children coming into a system that is, by the way, a system that makes money on the backs of children.
Rob Scheer: We must make sure that every single child in foster care is set up for financial success.
Rob Scheer: 64% of children come into foster care because of the word neglect.
Rob Scheer: The word neglect is defined in every state differently. I am here to tell you the word neglect is poverty. It's poverty. And so what we need to do is we need to do everything in our powers to keep the families together.
Rob Scheer: We have to determine to eliminate trash bags for children who are in foster care. And so with our organization, Comfort Cases, we have delivered over 185,000 cases.
Rob Scheer: Each and every one of us can give the most valuable thing. And that's our time.
Keywords:
TriciaReillyKoch, DoroBushKoch, HealthGig, Mother, Mothers, Mothering, Family, Grandparents, Grandchildren, Grandmother, Friendship, Health, Wellness, PhysicalHealth, MentalHealth, SpiritualHealth, Routine, HealthCare, Longevity