Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Rob Scheer. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Rob, thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
At age 12, I was placed in foster care. I was given a trash bag to put my belongings in and sent to a new “home.” I stayed there, a place I truly considered by new family for six years. On my 18th birthday, the people I called “Mom and Dad” suddenly handed me a trash bag not so dissimilar to the one I had years ago, again filled with my belongings and they told me I had to leave. I asked “why?” and they said that they “were no longer getting the check from the government because I aged out.”
I was 18, a senior in high school and suddenly homeless.
After two days of living under a bridge, I made the decision that I would go back to school and get my degree. And I did. From sleeping on couches, to a bathroom at the local taco restaurant I was making minimum wage at, I made it through that year.
I didn’t let the system hold me back. I joined the Navy. Then I eventually became a successful businessman for years in banking. I didn’t fit the mold of “foster kid,” rather I did everything I could to set the highest mark possible for myself.
Years later, after I find my life partner Reece, we decided we wanted children, and eventually the day came when two beautiful children came to our doorway. But I was shocked to see: they were holding those same trash bags that I had held close to 40 years earlier. How could this still be happening?
Reece and I decided it was our mission to stop trash bags being given to youth entering Foster Care. So Comfort Cases was born.
In the past 10 years, through the help of thousands of volunteers, corporations and other organizations, we have given out more than 185,000 comfort cases, backpacks and duffles filled with essential items, such as new pajamas, a blanket, hygiene kit, stuffie, and a book.
It is our MISSION to bring hope and dignity to youth in foster care. Remember: these children did nothing to be put in this situation. An adult did something. We need to do everything we can to support these youth, so they have the same chance at change that I did, and those of you who were not in foster care had.
Rob, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I feel I answered this in the previous section. But to add:
I am often asked to speak to businesses about what how they can deliver better Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
I remind them that we are all connected as a global community and it is not only our responsibility, but our privilege to give back to those in need. Community was created for us to take care of each other, but somewhere along the way, we have forgotten that. We live in the wealthiest country in the world but yet we turn a blind eye to the suffering of so many in our own backyards. All it takes is the caring and commitment of one person to make a profound difference in the lives of others.
People of all ages need to learn to not only care about the struggles of others but to take action to help alleviate their suffering.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
Social media audiences are not built overnight. Also, there is not just ONE audience on social media. There are many audiences that messages need to be targeted to.
One key above all others we have found to be important: consistency. You can’t just “post” every “once in a while” and think you’ll build an audience.
You need to be engaging. You need to share relevant content. You need to understand your audience and the messages you’re trying to share with them.
We are active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and yes, even TikTok! (People have embraced our TikTok – we quickly garnered 70,000 followers and have focused efforts there to keep them both entertained and informed.)
As part of our consistency, we post every day. We produce a “Giving Tuesday” Facebook Live video, every, well, Tuesday. After that’s posted, we share it on all of our other channels. During this Facebook Live, we share what’s going on at the Comfort Cases center, and also share what we are in need of. Recently I stated that we needed crayons for our backpacks. Within days we received thousands of boxes of crayons donated by our followers! This truly proved the power of social media.
We also produce a weekly podcast, “Fostering Change.” It is an audio and video podcast and it posts every Tuesday. We share a 60-second trailer on all of our channels, and then post the full podcast as well. And, we ask our guests to share the podcast on their channels, and to tag us at @comfortcases and #fosteringchangepodcast. This increases our numbers exponentially. Again, we see the results, as for two consecutive years we’ve been ranked the #1 podcast focusing on foster care and adoption issues, and have won multiple awards – all of which we’ve posted on our social media channels, of course!
In conclusion: as mentioned prior, consistency is the key, but you need to test what works. It’s not just the “number of clicks,” it’s about “engagement”: who is seeing your posts, who is commenting, who is SHARING…. all of that will help grow your brand awareness and help you achieve your business goals.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Excerpted from my memoir, “A Forever Family: Fostering One Child at a Time”.
“The navy tried to teach me how to take care of myself, which I had already been doing. But it did give me structure and camaraderie and direction…
“When my commander found out I was good at typing, I became the division yeoman and didn’t have to do the same physical tasks the other recruits did. While they were drilling and doing inspections, I was typing reports, doing dictation, filing for my superiors. I graduated from book camp with honors, which meant I got to pick my own armed services finishing school. I went into clerical work because I wanted a job, something that would sustain me for life. But my past came back to bite me once again.
“After boot camp… the navy doctors found blood in my urine… One morning when I woke up, the abdominal pain was unbearable, like I’d been stabbed in the pelvis. My bladder had ruptured, and I was rushed into surgery. (this was all related to my years as a child where my dad “hadn’t let me go to the bathroom, how he had said ‘only bad kids urinated,’ which caused nerve damage. “Though he’d been dead for several years, my father was still causing me damage.
“(Following recovery from surgery) I returned to the base, my petty officer didn’t mince words: I was to be medically discharged. It was devastating news… the navy had no use for me. Now my one path to a normal life had been closed off, and there was not a single thing I could do about it.
“I was nineteen years old, and the navy gave me a… plane ticket back to DC and four weeks’ pay. I found a motel in Virginia and paid forty-five dollars a week for four weeks. Every day, I inched closer to being homeless again. I had to do something-immediately. The urgency was a palpable force rising up in me.
“So I hitchhiked into town and got a job at a department store. Taking every shift I could… I got enough for… rent at an efficiency apartment. I took a bus to the public library, researched ow to write a resume, and typed one up – fudging about college credits. Then I got the local newspaper., flipped to the classifieds…wrote a bunch of cover letters to any jobI thought I could do. First I got a telemarketing job, working nights and weekends, while also waiting tables at a restaurant… After that, I began a job at a local magazine publishing company, eventually working my way to becoming their marketing director.”
There were other jobs, and other stories, but eventually I got into banking and became a leader to teams across the country. I would just never give up, as I did not want to return to the place I was as a young man – I was always looking to move ahead and get better, be better and provide better for others.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.comfortcases.org
- Instagram: @comfortcases
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/comfortcases
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/comfort-cases-inc-/
- Twitter: @comfortcases
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5aRYx8Hb65WOsjarG5QWvQ
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/comfort-cases-rockville?osq=Comfort+Cases
- Other: TikTok: @comfort_cases
Image Credits
Comfort Cases