From the Streets to the Boardroom: Rebuilding a Shattered Foster Care System
In briefAI summary — tap to read
Rob Scheer, founder of Comfort Cases, shares his personal journey from foster care poverty to successful banking and now advocacy for 390,000 children in the U.S. foster system. Through his nonprofit, he has delivered over 265,000 care packages to children entering foster care, replacing the dehumanizing practice of giving them trash bags with dignity-affirming backpacks and essentials. His work has inspired legislative change and grown into a $6.6 million organization powered primarily by individual donations and volunteers.
Key takeaways
- Every year 23,000 children age out of foster care with 70% becoming homeless within 24 hours, yet only 3% earn four-year degrees and foster care youth comprise 80% of death row inmates.
- Comfort Cases replaces trash bags with personalized backpacks containing essentials like new pajamas, toiletries, and comfort items, with over 265,000 delivered across all 50 states and internationally.
- The organization operates as a 96% volunteer-run nonprofit funded primarily by individual donations averaging $8 per person, with no federal or state funding, demonstrating sustainable community-powered scale.
- Rob's transition from a CEO banker to full-time nonprofit leader required sacrificing material wealth for purpose, partnering with his spouse to model values-driven living for their five adopted children.
- Legislative advocacy has successfully eliminated trash bag policies in multiple states, with bills crossing governor desks and further victories planned, showing how personal story drives systemic change.
About Rob ScheerRob Scheer is founder and public speaker for Comfort Cases, a nonprofit delivering care packages to children in foster care. A former CEO and banker, he left corporate life after his memoir was published to focus full-time on foster care advocacy and legislative reform.
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Program: From the Streets to the Boardroom: Rebuilding a Shattered Foster Care System
Speaker: Rob Scheer
We bring you a new program every week on innovation, entrepreneurship, and education and how they contribute to service to others.
When something breaks, you can fix it; when something shatters, you must rebuild it. Our foster care system is in need of complete reform in order for children in care to have a more humane experience. Rob Scheer knows that the first step is for our community to realize there is a problem. There are far too many people who have little to no knowledge of the struggles children in foster care face. These children are truly invisible in our society. Not only must we raise awareness of their plight, but we must come together to alleviate their suffering. We must ensure that the basic needs of children are being met as they enter into care. Despite the frightening and chaotic transition they are experiencing, these children deserve to have a sense of dignity as they are moved to another home.
We must also realize that we are simply graduating foster children from the foster system to the prison system. We are not providing these children with the educational and life skills required to launch a successful future. If this is correct, we must realize the responsibility that each and every one of us holds to take care of these children and ensure that they have an equal opportunity for success in adulthood.
Our speaker, Rob Scheer, is the founder and CEO of Comfort Cases, an international nonprofit dedicated to bringing dignity and hope to youth in foster care. His and the organization's mission is clear: to eliminate the heartbreaking and dehumanizing practice of children being handed a trash bag to carry their belongings when entering the foster care system.
Since founding Comfort Cases in 2013, Rob and his team have distributed over 260,000 backpacks and duffle bags filled with essential and comforting items to youth in every U.S. state, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, the United Kingdom and The Bahamas.
Rob's passion for this mission is deeply personal. He was once one of those children—a youth in foster care who was given a trash bag. His personal journey runs from experiencing foster care to homelessness to becoming a successful businessman, advocate, and father of five children, all of whom came from that same system.
Members and guests, please welcome Rob Scheer.
To learn more, go to:
https://comfortcases.org/ (Donations welcome)
You can also visit their social media pages:
Instagram: @comfortcases @Rob_scheer
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/comfortcases
TikTok: @comfort_cases @robscheer.comfortcases
X / Twitter: @comfortcases @RobScheer6
To listen to the podcast, "Fostering Change," please visit YouTube or any of your favorite podcast channels, or on their website: https://comfortcases.org/podcasts/
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