Today we’d like to introduce you to Jill Gaikowski.
Hi Jill, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
HappyBottoms was born out of an email titled “ Throw some energy at this”. In the email was a link to a story about a diaper bank in California called Help A Mother Out (HAMO), one of only a handful of diaper banks in the country as of 2009. At the time I was a stay at home mom and was heart-struck by what I learned in story. There were women who didn’t have transportation or access to big box stores and had to buy marked up diapers at the corner convenience store and I didn’t know at the time that diapers weren’t (and still aren’t) covered by programs like WIC and Food Stamps.
Having a 2-year-old at the time myself, I knew I had to do something about it right here in KC.
After some more research, I created a plan to launch HappyBottoms with a “7000 Diapers in 7 Days” diaper drive in the fall of 2009. Utilizing blossoming social media channels to maximize efforts and publicity, I collected 15,000 diapers and huge community support in those 7 days. Before the drive kicked off, I began to work on finding partner agencies to distribute diapers, I worked with a lawyer to set up partner agreements and by-laws, established a website, and applied for and secured a 501c3. Fast forward to the end of 2010 and just over 80,000 diapers had been distributed to 8 partner agencies in Kansas City.
Now almost 12 years later, we’ve distributed over 16 million diapers and serve more than 13,000 children annually in the six county, greater KC area.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Nothing worth doing is easy, right? There were, and still are, many bumps. The amazing thing is that at every bump along the way there were people, so many people, who have helped HappyBottoms over those bumps. HappyBottoms was built on data, a strong infrastructure, and from day one hefty dose of a “wing and a prayer”. That wing and a prayer is made up of a village of people who have shown up at the right times to get us where we are. I hope that continues to be the case. We have been the luckiest organization with our leaders, supporters, volunteers, teammates, and everyone in between.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about HappyBottoms?
Basic Facts: Pre-pandemic 23,000 Kansas City area children need diaper assistance (US Census 2018).
Diapers can cost $100 or more per child per month, 10% or more of some low-income families’ budgets.
No government safety net programs (SNAP, WIC, Medicaid) cover diapers.
Health Impacts of Diaper Need:
- Social determinants of health like socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, education, physical living environment, job status, and social supports can predict health outcomes.
- Diaper need is a direct by-product of poverty. Chronic toxic stress of poverty affects a child’s brain development, language development, vocabulary, memory, and cognition. Stress affects parental mental health, parenting style, and nurturing. Infrequent diaper changing causes diaper dermatitis, which results in 1,000,000 pediatric visits per year for children age four and under. Left untreated, secondary skin and systemic infections can result, requiring more complex treatment and longer term effects.
- Diaper needs can hamper parents’ ability to monitor infant health. Parents need to see an average of 6-8 wet diapers each day to confirm babies are adequately hydrated from breast milk or formula. This translates to a need for 2,555 diapers per year at a retail cost of $1,000-$1,500 per year per child.
- Mothers without access to an adequate diaper supply are twice as likely to suffer from depression. 30% of low-income mothers feel diaper need is even more stressful than food insecurity. Maternal stress and depression negatively impact a child’s health and development and increase risk of physical and mental abuse and neglect.
- To escape diaper expense, low-income families often attempt toilet training too early or prolong diapering because of lack of knowledge or support. Even when attempted at the right time, the stress of toilet training increases the potential for abuse.
Tradeoffs for Low-income Families:
- 2019 HappyBottoms survey of 765 caregivers enrolled in our program showed
- Diaper need prevented 26% of respondents from buying food
- Diaper need prevented 26% of respondents from paying utilities
- 20% of respondents used a payday or other loan to buy diapers.
2017 Huggies study showed: 57% of parents missed work or school because they were unable to provide the required diapers to their child care center. Diaper need increases economic instability, continues the cycle of poverty, and ultimately impacts health outcomes.
HOW HAPPYBOTTOMS HELPS
We have several diaper programs to support families experiencing need in our community. Those programs include:
Ongoing Diaper Distribution: Provides a monthly supply of 50 diapers or 30 training pants to low-income children through 55+ social service agency sites. Our partner model has a ripple effect on families by providing access to other services like healthcare, basic needs, childcare, and case management that helps ease the effects of poverty for families.
Bundles of Joy: Provides mothers and their newborns a one-time distribution of 75 diapers along with information about our monthly agency program through 5 hospital sites. This early intervention can mean earlier access to other critical services the family needs.
Potty Training Education: Helps families navigate the potty training stage, eliminate diaper expense, and close the diaper need cycle. Participants receive a video curriculum and Potty Training Kit, including a potty seat, stepstool, curriculum booklet, board book, and sticker chart.
COVID-19 Service Expansion
Partner Agency Expansion: Addresses new and existing need by adding 9 or more new distribution sites through first quarter 2021, expanding services to 700 or more additional monthly children. Our Early Head Start pilot will address deepening needs from COVID-19 for working families struggling with childcare costs as centers reopen and reach 250 new children, giving families access to onsite and take-home diapers.
Mobile Mass Diaper and Food Distribution Partnerships: Provides greater access and helps to address broader and deeper needs from the pandemic through large-scale drive-through events. We will reach 800-900 children per month with these partnerships with a longer term goal to convert 3 or more into traditional partner agencies to provide continued monthly distribution and access to other services.
Direct from HappyBottoms Warehouse Distribution: Provides no-contact, twice-weekly drive-up diaper distribution to 100 participants per month, along with nonperishable food boxes or fresh produce provided through our Harvesters partnership.
Individual Home Diaper Delivery: Eases transportation, scheduling, and other pandemic-related barriers for families with individual home diaper delivery to 123 or more children per month.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
Diaper banks are relatively new, when HappyBottoms started there were only about 5-10 diaper banks in the country. There are now over 300. We are working to together to form better measurements of impact for this specific need and impact change on a larger scale. Additionally, HappyBottoms is working with Diaper Bank of the Ozarks and St. Louis Diaper Bank to form a statewide coalition that will work to effect greater change in the state of Missouri when it comes to diaper need. Our goal is to ensure every family has access to the diapers they need to keep their baby clean, dry, and healthy.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@happybottoms.org
- Website: www.happybottoms.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/happybottomsorg/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/happybottoms
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/happybottomsorg
Image Credits
Samantha Levi
