'Chair-ity' for those aging out of foster care expands

Original Article via News-Herald Written by Sheena Holland Dolan

Chair-ity, an organization that works to acquire furniture and home goods for young adults aging out of the foster care system, recently completed its first furniture delivery in Lake County.

Director of Operations Maria Paparella established Chair-ity in 2014 when she was a sophomore in high school. Now 23, Paparella's nonprofit organization based in Summit County has assisted around 120 former foster children furnish their own apartments after they age out of the foster system at age 18. 

An only child with a large extended family, Paparella said her interest in helping foster youth sparked at a very young age when she and her parents started looking into potentially adopting a child, since she had desperately wanted a sibling.

Paparella said it did not end up being the right time for her family to adopt, but she never forgot the details of the young girl in the foster system that they had been considering.

Paparella said that as she started preparing for college when she was a sophomore, she wondered if the girl her family had considered adopting would be able to attend college, or what her life would look like as she approached 18 and would age out of the system. 

She said she began to research the emancipation process of foster youth and was surprised at the answers she found -- that they receive no help in setting up their independent living space.

"I decided I was just going to go to Summit County Children's Services and ask the people at the core of it," she recalled. "Through that, I was definitely caught blindsided by it. (I) just decided that I have to do something, to at least try to ease this burden or this transition for them." 

She said she could not imagine trying to set up an apartment in the situation that emancipated foster youth are often in, with little to no emotional or financial support.

After talking to officials at the SCCS that handled the emancipation process, she found that the most-needed items were furniture and home goods. Paparella said that oftentimes foster youth would be able to acquire an apartment in a low-income area, but they would not have a bed and end up sleeping on their floors. 

She said that was the inspiration to start her organization, and began collecting furniture.

I collected furniture from anyone who knew or was willing to donate," she said. "I got a few cash donations from a few different people who heard about it and thought it was awesome. And I just kind of started it from there."

Chair-ity has since expanded furniture deliveries from just Summit County to include Medina, Stark, and Cuyahoga. They most recently completed their first deliveries in Ashtabula and Lake in the end of October.

Paparella said that Chair-ity is notified of foster youth about to age out by their assigned social workers, or other organizations that work directly with them, so much of their expansion has been allowed by social workers communicating between counties.

She said that furniture is donated from a variety of sources -- sometimes individuals, but they also have partnerships with furniture stores and realtors.

"We have pretty good partnerships with a lot of realtors that will give our name to their clients. They'll give their furniture to us," Paparella said. "We have a few partnerships with furniture stores, when they're delivering the new items, a lot of times their clients want the other stuff taken out. Instead of just throwing it on the curb we upcycle it to some of these kids who are aging out."

They accept donations in good condition for all different types of furniture that would fit in a small apartment -- except beds, which are always purchased new, Paparella said. 

Paparella said that one of the most common situations she encounters is foster youth having their own children and struggling with the ability to keep them once the parent is emancipated. 

"If they have their own kid, too, we'll definitely get them a bed because part of our mission and our process is to break this perpetual cycle of foster youth kids back going back into foster care," she said. "So if their kids can have a bed and a dresser, and definitely try to make their apartment a home, they're more likely to be able to keep their child."