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It is a midnight police raid. As the officers handcuff the adults, 15-year-old Ashley and 13-year-old Amber are taken into the safety of foster care… wearing only their pajamas and socks.  
 
Being a youth in foster care is unbelievably hard. Youth are quickly thrown into unfamiliar situations.  More than anything, foster kids just want to be seen as “normal.” This is hard to achieve if you came into foster care wearing only your pajamas.
 
Unfortunately, the youth’s new “parents,” the State of Missouri, don’t offer much help.  St. Louis-area foster youth, like Ashley and Amber, receive an average of $200 a year for their clothing allowance.
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The Solution Minimize
The Exchange is a resale shop that will give St. Louis-area foster youth a chance at “normalcy” by providing gently-used, high-quality clothing at affordable prices. The store will help stretch their meager clothing allowance by allowing foster youth to shop for only $1.00 per item.
 
The Exchange will also be open to the public, who will pay regular re-sale prices of $5.00 to $20.00 per item. Profits generated from The Exchange will support our work to find foster or adoptive families for Ashley and Amber, and the nearly 500 other St. Louis-area kids in need of a family.
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Help Make The Exchange a Reality Minimize

On April 23, the Coalition received $35,000 to bring The Exchange to life!  The competition, called Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation was hosted by Washington University’s Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and YouthBridge Community Foundation. 

Help Make The Exchange a Reality... contact Melanie Scheetz today at 800.FOSTER.3 (314.367.8373) x21.

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