Anchorage Daily News

Most teenagers worry about clothes, and for those in foster care, dressing with style, or even for the changing seasons, can be a real challenge.

A few Alaska foster teens who are part of a group trying to improve the system on Tuesday described experiences with wardrobe inadequacies, some of them alarming.

No shoes but sandals for a boy one Alaska winter. No new back-to-school clothes. Getting by with sweats and T-shirts.

"I've had the same clothes since eighth grade, and I'm 19 now," said Fherron Hines, who left foster care in October and now has her own place. Recently, she did start getting some new clothes. She had to, because she's five months pregnant. She was wearing a new maternity shirt and pants on Tuesday.

The group, called Facing Foster Care in Alaska, is putting attention on the problem and one fledgling effort to fix it .

Officials and a few veterans of the foster care system gathered Tuesday at REI in Midtown to announce a new program, FosterWear, in which REI will give discounts to foster families. They hope other stores will join in.

"The only word that comes to mind is awesome," said Bill Hogan, commissioner of the state Department of Health and Social Services. "Do they still use the word awesome?" he asked, checking with the foster care group of teens and young adults. They nodded.

State Rep. Les Gara and his aides have been working with the foster-care group and state officials for months on the clothing issue. So far, REI is the only store that responded, with discounts of 25 percent and 10 percent on sale items.

At REI, foster parents must make the discounted purchases at the customer service counter, where they'll be asked to show their foster parent identification card and another piece of ID. The store has set a cap of $1,000 per family per year, and will keep a running tally in a notebook, said Mike Herzog, the Anchorage store manager.

"We knew right away it was the right thing to do," Herzog said. The store also will loan gear like skis to foster families -- no rental fees, according to Gara's office.

Other stores may want to run the program differently, and could offer less of a discount, or more of one, Gara said.

Foster parents generally are expected to cover the cost of clothing out of the monthly stipend paid by the state, according to Tammy Sandoval, director of the Office of Children's Services. The stipend varies according to the age of the child and location. The payments went up 29 percent last year. Last month, the assistance for an Anchorage teenager was $876, one foster mother said.

But if a child first enters foster care without much, the state may provide an initial clothing voucher of up to $300. Later on, if there are unusual needs like a soccer uniform or special circumstances like a growth spurt, the foster parent can ask the state for an additional voucher, Sandoval said.

Foster children not getting basic clothes need to tell their caseworker, who can talk to the foster parent, Sandoval said.

The vouchers are hard to get and in Anchorage, they currently can only be spent at Fred Meyer and Burlington Coat Factory, said Amanda Metivier, an alumna of the system who now is a foster mother herself, at age 24. She's also president of Facing Foster Care in Alaska.

A group of Alaskans including then-Mayor Mark Begich last spring went to Seattle to check out a terrific privately run effort called the Treehouse, Metivier said. It includes a place called The Wearhouse where foster children can pick out new and nearly new clothing a few times a year.

A kid should never stand out for wearing the wrong or ill-fitting clothes, Gara said.

Find Lisa Demer online at adn.com/contact/ldemer or call 257-4390.

ADVERTISEMENT