Our Mission and Model
It’s More Than a Cause, It’s a Kid
The Need is Urgent, Yet Often Overlooked
Childhood poverty is a serious nationwide issue. The average U.S. family in poverty, with two adults and two children, lives on less than $24,000 a year. Consider these staggering statistics from the regions where Cradles to Crayons currently operates:
More than 305,000 Massachusetts children, 12 years old and younger, live in low-income or poverty-stricken households. In any given year, more than 100,000 of them will experience homelessness.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Philadelphia has the highest poverty rate among the nation’s ten largest cities. Nearly one in four Philadelphians, including 130,000 children, live in poverty.
Approximately 200,000 children in Chicago live in poverty – that’s one in three children.
What Poverty Looks and Feels Like for Kids
The kids we help don’t have shoes that fit. Or a coat warm enough to fend off winter winds. Or a backpack to carry their schoolbooks and supplies. Without these basics, they suffer. They don’t want to go to school. They have a hard time learning in school. They don’t go outside to play. They don’t feel valued.
Our Mission: Cradles to Crayons provides children from birth through age 12, living in homeless or low-income situations, with the essential items they need to thrive – at home, at school and at play. We supply these items free of charge by engaging and connecting communities that have with communities that need.
The Model That Brings Our Mission to Life
Our efficient and effective three-step model provides kids with the essentials they need, free of charge. This enables us to engage communities that have, connecting them with communities that need.
New and nearly new children’s items are collected through grassroots community drives and corporate donations.
Donations are then processed and packaged by volunteers in our warehouse, The Giving Factory®.
Packages from The Giving Factory are distributed to local disadvantaged children — through our collaborative network of diverse service partners.