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October 14, 2023 23 mins
As the cost of living skyrockets, families around the Commonwealth are feeling the strain, and leaning more on community services and non-profits like Catie's Closet in Dracut. Catie's Closet is being called on far more frequently these days for crisis response to help fight homelessness and child poverty while providing essentials for the growing influx of migrant children in Massachusetts. Their SOS Urgent Response Program Fund is now all but emptied. CEO and Co-Founder Mickey Cockrell joins Nichole this week to explain the sharp jump in need and what they need from the public to continue making sure every child is clothed and taken care of.
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(00:07):
From WBZ News Radio in Boston.This is New England Weekend. Each week
we come together and talk about allthe topics important to you and the place
where you live. So good tobe back with you again this week.
I'm Nicole Davis. It's really nosecret that the cost of living here in
Massachusetts and really around the country isskyrocketing. We can thank COVID impacts,
geopolitics, inflation so much more forthat. And unfortunately, because of that,

(00:32):
more and more people have to leanon state programs, community groups,
other nonprofits too, just trying tobridge the gap to get by as we
make our way into the winter monthsaround here. Proper clothing is critical for
kids. Trouble is, thousands ofchildren in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, for
myriad reasons, just don't have it. They have to go without. Enter
Katie's Closet. For years, they'vebeen working directly with schools, trying to

(00:56):
help young people get their essentials withoutstigma or judgment. These days, Katie's
Closet is being called on much morefrequently to help. The nonprofit is now
finding itself struggling to meet the need. Mickey Cockrell is the co founder and
CEO of Katie's Closet. She joinsus again here on the show. Mickey,
it's really great to have you backhere. So for people who might
not have caught the last time youwere here, for people who might just

(01:18):
not know about what you do.Let's start with giving us more of a
rundown. I guess about all theservices you offer and how Katie's Closet came
together in the first place. Katie'sCloset really came about as a surprise for
two reasons. One, it isnamed after my niece Katie, and she
was born with an unknown illness shehad it was to find actually when she

(01:40):
was fifteen years old. It's calledLowsey syndrome's connective tissue disorder. And she
had forty surgeries in twenty years andpassed away at the age of twenty.
And she is my younger sister's daughter, who who's the chairman of the board
and founder of the organization. Soimportant legacy here. But the second reason

(02:02):
to put these two together was anewspaper article that came out in our local
town. It was the Little Sun, and this reporter had shadow to kids
who were homeless living under a bridge, and he chronicles what they had to
go through to get ready for schoolin any given day, and you can
imagine it was traumatic and very difficult. And when Katie was asked about these

(02:23):
kids and if she knew there werekids in her school that were struggling,
she said, yeah, mom,but all they want is a chance to
go to school like everyone else.And she began to illuminate what those challenges
look like. Then she passed awaya few months after that conversation, and
my sister was really motivated to tryto do something in that school to help

(02:44):
those kids. And we opened ourfirst in school closet, so think of
it as a store in a school, full disclosure. And I spent thirty
plus years in retail, so ourspecialties mixed, and we built this this
store where students could go in wheneverthey needed, have access to whatever they

(03:07):
need, take as much as theywant, free of charge. Well,
in not too many months, seventeenhundred kids had walked through there, and
we realized this was bigger than weever dreamed. And before we could process
that, schools within the school districtcalled. We heard, you have this
resource, Can we have it here? Can we have it here? So
we said yes to a few here, and yes to a few there,

(03:29):
and morphed to today where one hundredand thirty schools supporting ninety thousand kids in
eleven school districts in Massachusetts and southernNew Hampshire. So that was the core
program. This in school closet program, This Katie's closet in your school,
where the door is locked, whereit's a facilitated visit where students you get

(03:51):
to be themselves and get to choosefor themselves and be who they want to
be and are any day of theweek, any time. The second program
that we run is the SOS UrgentResponse Program, and we learned early on
that children had displaced and our intransition from stable living conditions. Often whether

(04:16):
it's as a result of an interventionand DCF comes in, whether they're moved
to foster care, whether they area victim of a fire, whether they're
new arriving immigrant, and whether they'rerescued from an abusive situation. They're in
transition. And our pure mission isto make sure we provide an equitable opportunity

(04:39):
to go to school and that youcan return to school and thrive in school
until you graduate, because an educationis the surest pathway out of poverty.
So when we saw these children intransition, we had to get them back
and situated as fast as possible.In all of those scenarios I mentioned,
they're all coming with just the clotheson their back and nothing else. And

(05:03):
if they're from another part of thecountry or the world, then they don't
even have cold weather gear or anythingelse that might be important. So the
SOS SARGE Response program is the areathat's being exponentially tapped. So what's happening
here in Massachusetts and I'm sure acrossthe country you know, is taking a

(05:25):
toll on anyone who's a service provider. Obviously we have the migrant crisis going
on right now, But what otherdirections is this program being pulled in right
now? And how much are you? How much you giving right now as
part of this urgent response. Sothe urgent response program comes from one of
those vetted partners, and it cancome from the schools that we support and

(05:49):
even not support at this point aswell. And because they're the first responders,
they're the ones that are going tosee the children in transition. They're
going to know that a child's beenpulled out of their school or their class.
They're going to know that, youknow, a child was this placed
or suddenly become homeless because something happened, you know, at home. So

(06:11):
we're going to hear it from absolutelyeverybody. And it's a fifty to fifty.
Yes, we have the migrant situationthat's coming in and that's what's you
know that that's what is provoking newcities and towns, new communities, new
schools calling us saying you're the onlyone that can help, Can you help,
can you help? You know,can you do it at the scale

(06:32):
that we do it, because whatwe're doing is we're designing a package for
that individual that has up to twoweeks worth of you know, clothing,
but all the basics they need.So it is all oiler trees, that
feminine product you know they're they're usingthat this school supplies, but choos.
Now it's a cold weather, it'scoats and boots and it's everything you need.

(06:55):
And it takes a lot of productivityand staff and payroll and product to
make sure that we're curating that perfectlyand beautifully for those kids. And I
would say it's a fifty to fifty. So not only is it the migrant
situation. But it is the effectsof poverty. So as government programs ceased

(07:16):
post COVID, so many of themended at the end of last year,
might have ended in the spring,and then they add inflation to that.
Families are really struggling and they haveto make a decision in every single day.
They have to make a decision,you know, whether to pay the
mortgage, which is of course,or the apartment or the wrench, which
is first one. And then theymust keep electricity on, and then they

(07:39):
either can't afford or are visiting foodbanks. But once you've exhausted all of
that, there's absolutely zero funding forbasic necessities, for clothing and basic necessities.
Children grow out their clothing or useit, or you know, it
becomes just impossible. I mean.Worry that I tell of recently is a

(08:03):
student that went to school in theirbest clothing. It was what they had,
and it happened to be their sixthgrade clothes and they were now a
freshman in high school. You canimagine how ill fitting that was. And
all that young girl knew is shewas going to a place she was really
excited about wearing the best she had, and that best wasn't good enough because

(08:28):
it was ill fitting. She wascalled names, she was bullied exponentially,
and didn't last long in that environment, which is really tough. So what
can a child do under eighteen whomay not have anyone to advocate for them,
They don't have an opportunity to getwhat they need. And that's where

(08:50):
Katie's closet has to come in.So we're seeing a lot of that line
right now that slide into poverty,beyond low income into poverty, and families
and children just reaching out saying help. Yeah, I'm sure the height of
the pandemic absolutely did not help.But then you've also got cost of living

(09:13):
increases, You've got wages not followingup with the cost of living increases,
inflation. I mean going to thegrocery store or even going to this store
to get your kids clothing, Andlike you said, kids grow out,
They grow out of clothing fast whenthey are younger. It does not take
more than a few months. Youknow, I've got some young kids in
my life and it seems like everysix months they need new size. So
if you're already struggling to put foodon the table for your family, I

(09:37):
mean, all these factors coming together, it's got to be overwhelming for these
families. You have nailed it becauseyou aptly defined what so many families are
struggling with. I mean you mayhave seen recently, you know what you
saw in August when the governor declaredstate of emergency that you know, Massachusetts,
you know, is a fortunate statethat has right to show helter.

(10:01):
But then we have a situation becausewe don't have enough shelter opportunities for the
people here. This weekend, Ibelieve they posted that there are sixteen hundred
families in Massachusetts that are not housed. They're either in shelters or hotels.
And you know that everyone is puttingtheir heads together in a great think tank

(10:22):
to figure out how we can solvethis problem. Well, you can imagine
for us that dilemma just slies rightdownhill to us because all of those books
need our help. And so whenI say that our SOS Surgeant Response program
is depleted, it's not that Katie'scloset is depleted, or it's not that

(10:45):
my schools are not running. It'sthat I have a thousand kids on the
witless waiting for their package. Ican't say yes, to anyone else coming
down the pike unless the community.And you know, I mean that as
a state community, everyone in everycity wants to help. I mean,
we have an incredible number of familiesyou know, and children in Boston and

(11:07):
we you know, we have threedistribution centers. So you have the Merrimack
Valley which is located in drake It, we have our Boston distribution center,
and we have the most recent onethat we opened in Western mass which is
designed to start Hampton County. Andso we're getting tapped from east to west
coast here all sides. You're gettinghit from all sides. And then the

(11:28):
question is like how do you getthe product to get out to the kids?
Are you going shopping at the storeand bringing this back to your distribution
centers? Do you get you know, like wholesale deals? Is it just
donations? Like how are you gettingthis product in? That's a wonderful question.
Our partnerships are really important. Sowe absolutely have businesses, corporations,

(11:52):
organizations, schools who will host drivesfor us. And I mean we really
make that easy. We create acustom flyer for you, we provide donation
boxes, and when it's done,we you make a deal if you need
us to pick it up, oryou know, you want to make it
part of your philanthropic you know,experience, and you bring it by one
of our distribution centers. So wemake it really easy and that is a

(12:18):
big flow of merchandise into our building. We just had our fill the Bus
event which ran through August and September, and many many drives were held at
that point and companies would actually arrangefor us for a bus to literally come
and they would fill that bus withdonations and it was an incredible opportunity for
us. But there are categories ofcol that we have to provide brand new

(12:41):
for health reasons and whatnot, sowe only provide brand new underwear and socks,
only provide new full size toiletries.We try to give new shoes and
coats. We do accept gently isshoes, but it's rare that we find
old mind there because it shows whereand sweat marks pretty quickly, and we

(13:03):
don't want to pass on anything thatmay be unhealthy or uncool, you know,
for our kids. So that's acash outlay. Either folks that manufacture
those goods are donating it to usor one of those organizations that I spoke
about, is hosting a drive forthose items or yes. I set myself

(13:28):
up as a buyer with as manyproduct categories. That's where my thirty five
years of retail come from. Iset myself up as a buyer in order
to purchase at wholesale what I can, and so the cash donations that we're
asking for now to replenish this fundwould go to purchasing those key pieces.

(13:50):
In addition to that, we havea lot of special needs. There's a
lot of you know, special kidsor special sizes, and we also have
to make sure they're taking care.And manufacturers don't always manufacture in the size
ranges we need. I mean,you know, in my day, it
was always a you know, one, two, three, three through one
kind of range and that small toextra large, so you don't get as

(14:13):
many at the high end. Yetour kids, through poverty and obesity,
really need those special sizes, andso I have to you know, purchase
those. I mean, we'd loveit donated if you know, if everyone
could go out and buy ten pairsof leggings at every single size of our
kids, and you know, tenpairs of sweats. I mean, I'd
be getting back in business pretty quick, but you know, we have to

(14:37):
spend money. And then there's manyof our school systems and mandatory uniform colors.
So uniform colors create a few things. Many think it levels of playing
fields so that you don't have topurchase as many clothes and others. You
know, it certainly prevents any youknow, gang affiliation or whatnot. So
it can create order and then otherwisedisordered world. But we find that it's

(15:01):
just not always the case because there'sstill a disparity in whether or not you
were able to buy your uniform ata great store in your city or whether
you are getting a hand me downin a thrift box or somewhere. And
you can tell the difference when you'rea kid in school. You can tell
my shirt's not as clean and rightas yours is, or you can tell

(15:22):
that my pants are old fashioned versusyours. And it's just another stigma,
you know, just another piece tomake them feel uncomfortable and not want to
go to school. We want youin school. What do we have to
do to break down the barrier ofyou getting there? Yeah, there's enough
bullying going on, there's enough stigmagoing on. And the last thing we

(15:43):
need is some kid coming up toyou and being like, oh man,
you dress stupid or you're dressing it. There's enough happening in that child's life
at home where school should be forthem, a place to be eight ten
hours a day where they can feellike they can be themselves. They're getting
fed, they're getting educated, they'regetting fed in their tummy and in their
brain, and they can go homeand then deal with whatever's going on at

(16:06):
home. So so I mean,what you're doing is is just uplifting these
children. And obviously again you've gota thousand children on this wait list.
This is a big deal. Whatdo you need right now? Well,
financial contributions would go a long way. I always try to say, you
know, if everyone gave, youknow, fifty dollars, you know,

(16:27):
I would probably have a million dollarspretty soon or whatever they can afford.
So cash donations would allow us tobuy into the gaps that we currently have.
But any manufacturing partners, anyone whoyou know has access to product would
be really helpful. Sharing this messageis huge. The more people you know

(16:52):
that might want to host a driveor you know, find some some of
this product that we need that youcan also find on our website at Kesecloset
dot org. Would be really helpful. But we're replenishing the fund is probably
number one, and then replanning thereplenishing the in kind merchandise needs that we
have is right behind it. Okay, okay? And is there a list

(17:14):
on the website of other than thefund, because I see here you need
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars atleast to get through this waitlist to get
those items that you need brand newthat people can't donate. And two hundred
and fifty one thousand dollars sounds likea lot, but it goes quick.
I'm sure it goes quick when you'retalking about thousands of children. I mean

(17:36):
it's you know, it doesn't gofar at all, and but I mean
it would. It would go farfor us because it is a combination of
in kind and what we need topurchase. And even through this you call
up, this this call to actionmessage that I'm putting out there right now,
it will generate some in kind.It will generate you know, people

(17:57):
you know maybe sending through our onwishliss or whatnot. You know, a
couple of peers of underwear and socks, and you know, youth is really
important. Where we struggle the mostis from ages you know, three to
twelve, thirteen, fourteen, Sothat elementary school we struggle the most because

(18:18):
there's it's it's just there's so manythere's so many in that age group that
are without right now. But thenteen girls and boys, I mean we
provide you know, we try toprovide unlimited feminine product. You know,
I can't tell you how many deodorantswe go through just in trying to make
sure. Yeah, it's very expensive. Another call is haircare for natural intexture

(18:44):
hair. I mean that is soexpensive and they need multiple bottles in order
to control their hair. And wehave a very large, diverse group in
our state and so we need totake care of those kids as well.
But I mean even you know,shopping our Amazon wish list or doing a
neighborhood drive, everything would be wonderfuland spreading the words so more people will

(19:10):
get involved, especially where we're youknow, coast to coast, east to
west, I mean north to southin our state, it would go a
long way. I can find thatAmazon wish list on your website as well,
and social media too, I'm assuming, yes, we're on Facebook and
Instagram and Twitter and contact us isthere if you want to, you know,

(19:30):
discuss maybe something that's more unique.You might have a brilliant idea I
don't even know about, or youmay want to make a sidebar introduction.
And I'm all ears. And youknow, in addition to this influx of
just individual kids, I mean,we still have a wait list a mile
long for schools that are waiting forour program. And because it's a cost

(19:52):
of opening those clauses as well anda cost to maintain them. So I
am thrilled that you know, we'reable to do what we do and to
think about it in such a wayto bring dignity and hope and enthusiasm,
you know, to our kids.You know that they can walk into school,
self identify as having a challenge,pass to Katie's closet, get reoutfitted

(20:18):
from head to toe, and landin their classroom in five minutes, ready
to go, fitting in, feelingvalued like everybody else. I mean,
it is so powerful, you know, a Maslow McGregor need. Everyone understands
home, everyone understands food, butnot enough people think about that dignity of
clothing and hygiene and showing up confidentto learn, or just showing up confident

(20:45):
to be who you should be everyday of your life. And that is
the underlying our mission, says Katie'sCloset gives children in need life changing access
to clothing and basic necessities so theycan thrive in school and in life.
There's a one of us that doesnot think about what we look like before

(21:08):
we're going to head into a meeting, before we're going to head out.
Are we going to be accepted?Are we going to feel good? Are
we going to be rejected? Likewe're adults, And we still think about
that every day. We are empoweredto change that paradigm, whichever that looks
like. And these children need us, need everyone listening today to help,

(21:30):
and they're at that core critical stageof their life where it's not just it's
not just appearance in hygiene, it'sself esteem. You are worthy of having
these things as you grow. Ilove that you said, as you grow.
So there's a reason we open thevery first closet in a high school
and then learned quickly we have toroll all the way back to pre k

(21:52):
so we have to be with youfrom the start. And stay with you
as you grow within your community schoolsystem. If we're not there, I
mean, we'll have an elementary school. If they're going to transition the middle
and they'll say this case closet there, they're still going to be There'm I
still going to be able to getwhat I need. And you know,
if you're in the community. RobleMass, we're fortunate enough to be in

(22:15):
every single school in the city.We will soon. We're working on being
in all schools in Boston. We'rein fifty right now, but we have
another thirty five to fifty to open. We are working on our last quarter
of schools in Lawrence so that we'resupporting these gateway communities. And now we're
here in Western Mass trying to makesure you know, the cities in Hampden

(22:41):
County are going to get served.We're currently in most schools in Springfield,
so that is the first community thatwe're diving into. So if we can
go in and be a swat teamand make sure the entire school district is
taken care of, then we knowwe're going to solve the problem. We're
going to solve the problem. Ourgoal is to make sure every child,

(23:04):
you know, in Massachusetts and southernNew Hampshire where we serve you know has
access to us. Okay, well, Katie's closet dot org. Let's get
this money in there. Let's getthis SOS Urgent Response program back up and
running. I mean it's still running, but you need this boost. Mickey
Cockrell, thank you so much forthe time, and thank you for how
you're helping our kids. Thank you, Nicole, it was such a pleasure.

(23:27):
Have a safe and healthy weekend,and please join me again next week
for another edition of the show.I'm Nicole Davis from WBZ News Radio on iHeartRadio.
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