K.C. Kilpatrick Geaux Bags

Geaux Bags is an outreach project that serves children in crisis within the first 24 hours they are placed in foster care, providing an emergency bag filled with age-specific, basic necessities and comfort items for the first night.  As a foster parent since 2013, Geaux 4 Kids founder, K.C. Kilpatrick discovered exactly how stressful the initial 24-48 hours of receiving a child or children into foster care are, and how impossible it was to adequately prepare. 

“There are critical gaps that hinder the success of foster parents,” said K.C. Kilpatrick, founder of Geaux Bags. “The first few hours are crucial. The goal of Geaux Bags is to give dignity and a sense that the community cares for children, and the practical items foster parents need to be able to focus on the relationship and the feelings of the traumatized children.”

Geaux Bags has operated entirely from volunteers and donations, most of which have been in the form of in-kind materials and supplies. Geaux 4 Kids, an official 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization, serves from Northwest Louisiana Family Justice Center where office and storage space to house the items has been donated. Volunteers assemble the Geaux Bags, and once completed, are given directly to local DCFS offices to deliver to the children for the first night in care. 

Since 2013, Geaux Bags has served over 4,500 children in foster care through Geaux Bags in our North Louisiana Region and is expanding this program throughout our state.