Carry Me Forward is a new social movement dedicated to providing foster children and homeless youth with backpacks and duffel bags to carry their belongings and replace the current standard piece of “luggage” - the black, plastic trash bag.

At Carry Me Forward, we stand in awe at what foster children and homeless youth have to carry -- but we want to provide them with a better way to carry it.  More than anything, we want to stand with these kids as they continue their journey toward their forever homes.

As you’re reading this, there are more than 500,000 children in the foster care system in the United States. These children change placements an average of 3 times during their stay in the system.  Every time a child in foster care is moved to a new placement, the few belongings they have go with them – usually in a black, plastic trash bag.

Meanwhile, on streets and in shelters across the US, there are another 2.5 million youth who are identified as homeless.  These youth also carry their belongings with them -- usually in a black, plastic trash bag.  Beyond a loss of dignity and respect, these youth are often targeted by predators because they are so easy to identify by their “luggage”.

The problem of homeless children in America isn't going away, it is actually getting worse.

The symbolism couldn’t be clearer – or more heartbreaking. These bags are where we put our garbage – the things we throw away. Every time a child’s worldly belongings go into a trash bag, a piece of their self-esteem goes in with them. Every time we let a child put their worldly belongings in a trash bag, we let them think that they and the things that are important to them are as disposable as the garbage we leave on the curb on trash day.

We may not be able to provide a home for every child. But we can provide them with a simple, practical yet powerful reminder that they and things that matter to them matter to us.

At Carry Me Forward, we think it’s time to retire the black plastic trash bag as luggage.

And we don’t just think it - we’re doing something about it!

At Carry Me Forward, we believe in community, and the power of community to make a positive impact in the world. With Carry Me Forward, we're counting on that power to help us make a difference for foster children and homeless youth everywhere.

Our wish is to run 100s of campaigns per year, generating awareness across the country and an endless supply of bags.  Here's a quick overview of the campaign mechanics:

We partner with a designer to design a bag especially for a Carry Me Forward campaign.  This allows us to have many different designs to suit the many different styles that exist out there.  It also allows us to feature local designers across the country - an added, but important benefit to us in the spirit of supporting the community.

We select an organization that works with children in foster care and/or homeless youth to receive the donation bags.   The type of donation bag coupled with the production cost for the designer bag drives the final designer bag pricing.

We launch a 2-month "crowdfund-style" campaign to sell the designer bags - and spread the word about what what we're doing and why we're doing it.

When the campaign hits or exceeds (wink) its goal, we use the funds we raise to produce a donation bag for every designer bag sold through the campaign.  You’ve seen this “One for One” model before -- think shoes.  You got it!  TOMS

We send the donation bags to our partner organization, and they pass them along to the people this whole thing is all about: the children and youth of America.  

The Carry Me Forward philosophy is simple: all children deserve safety, respect, and dignity, and all children deserve to be able to carry their belongings with them with dignity and pride.

At Carry Me Forward, we want to make sure that each and every child we serve has a way to carry their belongings that makes them, in this small but crucial way, just like any other kid.  In some cases, their lives might just depend on it.

There’s no one-size-fits-all mentality here: the bags Carry Me Forward donates will make sense for the children they’re going to -- waterproof backpacks for homeless teens, small suitcases for toddlers, larger duffel bags for foster teens.

Carry Me Forward is about giving foster kids and homeless youth something small, simple and practical -- a bag to carry their belongings.  We believe that this small, simple, practical act carries something much bigger inside it -- because to the kid carrying it, that bag becomes more than just a bag:

It becomes a reminder that they are a person of value.

It becomes their armor, their super hero cape, their source of power.

It becomes a constant they can carry with them until the day it goes into the closet, never to come out again – except to go on vacation.

The story of Carry Me Forward starts with a video - and a message.

Husband-and-wife team Damon and Sara Caiazza were at an adoption class when they watched a video called ReMoved – a powerful short film that follows a 10-year-old girl as she is removed from her home, separated from her younger brother and navigates her way through the foster care system. (We encourage you to check out the film here). 

The film is heartbreaking from start to finish, but several images in particular really caught Sara and Damon’s attention: shots of the 10-year-old girl – around the same age as their own kids – with her few belongings in a black, plastic trash bag.  

After seeing the film, Damon and Sara did some digging on their own, and decided that more needed done to address this problem.  

As luck would have it, the local Columbus community was doing its first Give Back Hack—a Startup Weekend-style 54-hour buildathon . Give Back Hack seemed like the perfect opportunity to pitch the idea that was becoming Carry Me Forward.

On April 17, 2015 Damon pitched the idea at the inaugural Give Back Hack and received strong support.  Over the next 54 hours, they assembled a team, worked on the idea, and on that Sunday evening they pitched the concept you see today. The esteemed panel of judges awarded Carry Me Forward a $3,000 grant along with other support to further develop the concept, and with that, the journey of Carry Me Forward began.  

Since Give Back Hack weekend, we've continued to build momentum and gain traction.

Our first design partners are already coming on board and are as excited as we are about the vision and the positive impact.  In addition to doing limited edition campaign bag designs, they have also pledged to work by our side to ensure that the donation bags we provide are high quality, purposeful, and rugged.

We’ve also identified numerous organizations that are perfect candidates to receive our purpose-built donation bags.

Carry Me Forward is out of the gates and as you can see, things are coming together fast!  We want to keep this incredible momentum going strong, and we need your help to make it happen!

With this crowdfunding campaign, we’re hoping to raise $10,000 to help finalize custom donation bag designs, manufacturing channels for our bags, rally more designers and partners to our cause, and get everything lined up to launch our first  Carry Me Forward campaign and get the very first bags into the hands of kids.

$10,000 would give us the momentum we need to keep things moving forward, but with more support we can get even more done even more quickly, so we’ve lined up a few stretch goals as well:

$30,000 would allow us to produce a short film similar to the one that inspired the concept of Carry Me Forward.  In this case, the film would focus on a homeless youth’s journey after aging out of the foster system.  The film, titled “Aged Out”, would help us raise national awareness of this growing problem in America.  It would have incredible social and viral marketing value that would also help us further our cause.

$40,000 would allow us to immediately expand our journey beyond the confines of Columbus Ohio to start testing our concept in other markets just as much in need as ours.  

We have some awesome rewards lined up to thank you for supporting Carry Me Forward and our mission:

Pledge $5+
I Just Want to Help
Help support our cause with a donation as little as $5

Pledge $10+
Cause Bracelet
Help spread the word while supporting our cause!

Pledge $20+
Handmade Thank You
You took the time to support our cause so the least we can do is take time to make you a handmade card!

Pledge $60+
Luggage Tags (Set of 3)
Carry your support for Carry Me Forward with you on your luggage with these stylish leather-bound luggage tags!

Pledge $125+
Messenger Bag
Carry the Carry Me Forward message with your own Carry Me Forward deluxe messenger bag!

Pledge $250+
Love It All
Get everything we’ve got to give to help us move our cause forward!

Believe in the Carry Me Forward mission and want to help in a way that goes beyond money? Help us spread the word about Carry Me Forward by sharing this page with friends and through social media (#CarryMeForward) and let's see how far the Carry Me Forward message can carry.

Join Carry Me Forward and let's let these kids know that we stand with them as they continue their journey home.