Stepping Up For Foster Care was started in 2017 by Coral Hayward. Our mission is to make sure every child in Foster Care has new shoes on their feet. It’s a big job, there are thousands of children in Foster Care every year just in the state of Utah. Our goal is to someday spread our reach to other states and bring greater awareness of the needs of Foster Care to the public. Not everyone can be a Foster Parent, but anyone can make a difference in the life of a Foster Child.

Coral Hayward  

I became aware of this need by watching my parents and their experience in Foster Care. My foster siblings would come with holes in their shoes that were sizes too small. One of my little sisters, who we have since adopted, lit up like it was Christmas when my mom got her her own, brand new pair of shoes. It made her feel loved and special. I think every kid deserves to feel that way, and shoes are so important. So many donations for these kids would include hand me down shoes, but those kids can tell that they are getting shoes no one else wanted, and it makes them feel just as unloved as those shoes. So I made it my goal to get shoes to these kids so they have one less thing to feel bad about, and their families have one less expense to worry about. I am still working to register Stepping Up as an official Non-Profit, but in the meantime, I can still do my best to address the problem. Every kid deserves to feel special and loved.