Episode Details

Roughly 28,000 children are in the Texas foster care system right now. When a child is removed from their home—often in an emergency—they may arrive at a shelter or foster placement with nothing but the clothes on their back, or sometimes less.

Kelly and Richard Archibald founded Qavah The Storehouse to change that moment. Their nonprofit assembles "first night bags": brand-new backpacks stocked with pajamas, an outfit for the next day, toiletries, and a handwritten note of encouragement. They deliver them to CPS offices and the Children's Advocacy Center so caseworkers can hand a bag to a child on the worst night of their life.

Richard speaks from firsthand experience. As a boy, he and his brothers were taken to a shelter after his mother's arrest—given only a thin gown, nothing else. That memory fuels everything the organization does. Kelly, a small business owner who also serves on the Child Welfare Board, walks through exactly what goes into each bag and explains the standard they hold themselves to: "if our children were going to spend the night with somebody."

The episode also covers Qavah's reunification parties for families coming back together, their donations of Halloween costumes to homeless student-parents at DISD, and the couple's popular podcast featuring foster care alumni and survivors telling their own stories. Their next goal is a brick-and-mortar location where kids can walk in and pick out clothes and supplies for themselves.

https://www.qavahpodcast.com/qavahstorehouse