Second Friday · 5:30–9:30 PM
Respite nights
Pizza, a movie and crafts for every child in the house, including bio and adopted kids. You get four hours off.
Porchlight Foster Network · Wyandotte County
Three doors onto the same porch.
Fostering or caring for familyGet help this weekPlacement bags, a free night off, clothes from The Closet and a Tuesday circle of people who get it.
Thinking about itFind out what fostering takesAn honest info night, the licensing steps in Kansas, and a foster parent you can call with questions.
Want to helpWrap a familyCook a supper, sit for a respite night, sort The Closet, or join a team of six around one family.
Bag No. 486, December
Purple pajamas, a unicorn night-light and a copy of Last Stop on Market Street.
Placement day
A bag on the porch within 24 hours
Children often arrive with their things in a trash bag, or with nothing at all. When a new placement happens, the foster or kinship parent, or their caseworker, sends us the child's age and sizes.
By the next evening a volunteer leaves a duffel bag on the porch: pajamas, two days of clothes, a toothbrush, a night-light, a book and a stuffed animal the child gets to keep. Supper for the whole house comes with it.
- Free for every licensed and kinship home in the county
- Requests answered 7 AM to 11 PM, every day
- We text before we knock, and never ask about the child's case
- Hair care and lotion matched to the child, if you tell us
Every month
What foster and kinship families get
All of it free. You don't need to be licensed through any particular agency.
Mon · Wed · Sat
The Closet
Clothes newborn to adult XL, car seats, cribs, school supplies and new underwear. Take what fits; no limit.
Tuesdays · 6:30 PM
Tuesday circle
Foster and kinship parents around one table, with childcare down the hall. Grandparents raising grandkids especially welcome.
Ages 16 to 21
Teen Launch
A mentor, a driving-lesson fund and help with the first apartment for young people ageing out of care.
Six neighbors, one family
Wrap teams
A team from a church, office or street commits to one foster family for a year: meals, rides, babysitting, birthdays.
2025, counted
One year on the porch
January to December 2025. Counted from delivery slips and sign-in sheets.
Calendar year 2025
Figures from our 2025 annual report, presented in March 2026.
- Placement bags delivered1486
- Suppers delivered with them2,214
- Children at respite nights21,131
- Families wrapped by a team74
- Wrapped families still fostering a year later388%
- 1Average time from request to porch: 19 hours.
- 2Counted per night; many children come every month.
- 3The county-wide figure for first-year foster homes is much lower. This is the number we care about most.
From the porch
I got my two grandbabies at eleven o'clock on a Thursday with nothing but the clothes they had on. Friday at supper time there were two bags and a pan of enchiladas on my step. I sat down and cried.
The Porch Light
One letter a month, mostly good news
Respite dates, what The Closet needs, and a story from a family who said we could share it.
Read by 2,340 neighbors
- ClosetWe're out of teen boys' hoodies, size M and L
- RespiteOctober's theme is Halloween, costumes optional
- FamiliesThe Haverty family's first year, in their words
New placement tonight? Tell us their sizes.
A bag and supper on your porch by tomorrow evening.