The Board of Directors of Nurturing Foster Families, d/b/a Cape Cod Foster Closet, recently and unanimously voted to appoint Carla Koehl to the position of Executive Director, and co-founder Sharon Palmer to the position of Program Director.
Carla started her career at Newsweek magazine, rising over ten years from reporter to associate editor. Her communications skills, combined with her later work in entrepreneurship and marketing, inform her ability to help the Cape Cod Foster Closet forge strong community partnerships, and elevate the organization’s profile throughout the region.
Among those served by the Cape Cod Foster Closet are the more than 3,800 grandparents on the Cape and Islands who are raising their grandchildren – most as a direct result of the opioid epidemic. “We’re standing here on the front lines,” says Carla. “It’s a painfully quiet war. So many amazing people are stepping up to raise the children left behind by addiction. They have so few supports, and we’re one of them.”
The Cape Cod Foster Closet’s storefront boutique in Orleans delivers free clothing, shoes, baby equipment, school supplies, outerwear, underwear, and more to anyone on the Cape and Islands who is raising someone else’s biological child, ages newborn through 18. No referrals are required. The organization also provides critically needed information, referrals, and community connections for this otherwise largely isolated population.