Fashion boutique and Christian ministry helping hundreds of girls in foster care
If a room of teenage girls with two supportive and loving parents were asked to list the belongings they have stored in their bedroom closets, many would likely name more items than they can hold in their hands.
However, if a room of teenage girls transitioning into foster care were similarly asked to name the worldly items they have in their possession, many would be unable to form a list beyond the clothes on their backs.
While the most important needs of the 191,000 teenage girls in foster care in the United States are food, shelter, and a sense of security and guidance from a loving family, a Christian ministry in Florida is providing a different unmet need.
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In Tampa, a Christian ministry and fashion boutique called Loft 181 are addressing the dire need for clothing among hundreds of foster girls.
Loft 181 accepts clothes, shoes, accessories and other personal items from various donors and area residents and donates the items to 13- to 18-year-old girls in foster care. The initiative has served roughly 400 girls in 2023.
“One of the reasons why clothing is the most desired need among girls in foster care is because when they're sometimes taken into foster care it's because there's an unsafe situation in their home. They're usually taken abruptly from their home and not allowed to take the time to gather their belongings,” said Loft 181 Manager Jennifer Whitten in an interview with The Christian Post.
“The foster girls in these scenarios are often not allowed to go back to retrieve those belongings. Law enforcement will come in or a social worker will come in and remove them from that situation. Then, they're taken directly into foster care with whatever possessions they have on them.”
Whitten, whose sister-in-law originally founded Loft 181, took over as the manager of the boutique about a year ago. She said although the initiative primarily helps teen girls in foster care and those rescued from human trafficking, they've also served younger girls and those who've aged out of foster care to avoid denying any girl the chance to receive donations.
Loft 181 is affiliated with One More Child, which is a national organization serving foster children, trafficking survivors and other vulnerable children and families.
The boutique schedules hundreds of appointments with foster girls seven days a week. At the appointments, the foster girls not only have the opportunity to visit the area in the store where the clothing and accessories are displayed and try on the clothing items in the fitting rooms, but they also have the opportunity to visit a Gospel room in the store.
In the Gospel room, volunteers monitor the girls as they fill out prayer request forms and allow the girls to enjoy fruit or homemade pastries.
“We hope that each girl who visits Loft 181 leaves not only feeling loved and cared for but also having hope in the future God has planned for her,” Whitten said.
“One of the most rewarding things for me about Loft 181 is just seeing the transformation in the girls. Oftentimes, when they first walk through the door, they just have no self-confidence. Their heads are hung. They won't make eye contact. They don't really want to talk to you. And we expect that from them. We don't try to push them too far,” she added.
“We do our best to earn their trust, and we do that through just loving on them, being gentle, being kind, trying to give them a really excellent experience, going over and above to make them feel special.”
Whitten said one way that she and the roughly 100 other volunteers helping with Loft 181 will try to make the foster girls feel special is when the teens come to the boutique, they will complement the girls when they are trying things on in the fitting room.
“One of the coolest ways we're able to kind of break down those barriers that they build is in our fitting rooms. We have a lovely fitting room. We write their names on the door. And we only have one mirror in our fitting rooms, so the girls have to come out in order to see themselves,” Whitten said.
“When they come out, me and our volunteers will 'ooh' and 'aww' over the girls. We really make a big deal out of them; how beautiful they are, how God made them. You should see their faces. You should see how their face changes, how they light up,” she continued.
“They start making eye contact. They'll start talking to us. Oftentimes, that's all it takes. It’s that one time coming out in the fitting room, and then they're ready to be our friends. And that lays the groundwork for us to be able to build a relationship with them by the end of the appointment, and be able to share the Gospel with them. I think being able to just see where they came from when they first walked in the doors and how their mood and demeanor changes is the most rewarding part for me.”
Among the roughly 100 volunteers helping with Loft 181, Christian high school student Emily Peake, 16, said she has “always had a passion for working and serving other people.”
“I go to a Christian school. We do a lot of volunteering. We work a lot with One More Child. But, for me, Loft 181 is a place where I can really see God working in the lives of girls who, in reality, are not much different than me. They're just in a different situation. Being able to go through and volunteer and be a picture of the love of God to these girls who are just really in need of it is one of the most powerful things that I think ever touched my life,” Peake told CP.
“I'm just really honored to have gotten to be a part of it. Loft 181 is a ministry that you can fall in love with. There are so many ways you can get involved. You can just see such a great impact on the people around you, and being able to see the Lord move in such mighty and powerful ways throughout this organization has really helped deepen my love of volunteering here.”
As rewarding as serving others through Loft 181 has been for Peake, she said the volunteer work doesn’t come without challenges.
“I would say one of the most challenging parts of volunteering here at Loft 181 is that it's never easy to hear these girls' stories; to sit and listen to the things they've gone through in their lives,” Peake said.
“Even as they're telling you about the things you can pray for and all the hardships they face and things they're stressed about, the things they're anxious about; sometimes you just stay in our Gospel room and your heart just breaks for people that you just met,” she added.
“While that is one of the most challenging parts, it's also rewarding to be able to have made an impact in their lives, to be able to give them something to be excited about, to feel proud and feel confident. And then, from there, you know, it's one of the things you can just sit and pray on by remembering their prayer requests.”
Loft 181 volunteer Joyce Baumgartner, 78, told CP she remembers many of the girls' prayer requests and keeps them in her heart and regularly prays for them.
“I have a list of girls and prayer requests that I keep in my Bible and I try to pray for them as often as I can. It's just rewarding. It just makes you feel like you're doing something that is beneficial. And not just praying for them once and then throwing the card away; not knowing what's going on. But all of our volunteers are still praying for these girls,” she said.
One More Child representative Joe McLeod, who is based out of Lakeland, Florida, told CP that his life's mission is to help children in need, and he's been able to fulfill that mission through the collaborative efforts of his organization and Loft 181.
“Our mission is to serve vulnerable children and struggling families. We work extensively in the foster care arena. And we help foster parents. We support foster families. We also work with survivors of child sex trafficking,” McLeod said.
“The work that we do aligns well with the mission and the work of loft 181. We were partners for a little while, but then it just made sense to officially join Loft 181 as part of One More Child because we're able to serve more foster children and trafficking survivors that way.”
Nicole Alcindor is a reporter for The Christian Post.
