May is National Foster Care Month and the statistics are staggering. According to the Department of Health & Human Services, on September 30, 2014, there were an estimated 415,129 children in foster care. It’s probably safe to assume these numbers have continued to grow over the past two years.

We can all do our part to help vulnerable children going through such difficult times. For our part, we have launched an initiative that will allow us, with corporate and community assistance, to put Trouble the Dog into the arms of as many of foster children as we possibly can. Trouble is a proven coping mechanism who is “on call” 24/7 whenever a child needs the reassurance that a huggable friend can offer.

We recently had the opportunity to speak with a foster mother who says that she can still hear the sobs of a very young child she was fostering. She is enthusiastic about our initiative and said she would have given anything to have been able to put Trouble into the arms of the heartbroken child and let him know that Trouble was his to confide in and keep for his very own.

No fewer than three articles in today’s Boston Herald illustrate the severity of the opioid crisis in our communities. The first is about a Westfield mother whose unconscious one-year- old son was brought back to life with the overdose-reversing drug Narcan. The child was rushed to the ER – a result of his mother’s drug addiction and having heroin in the home. The second article is a heartbreaking piece about the same mother and son and how children deserve so much better than this.

The third article shares staggering statistics of substance-exposed newborns – a crisis that the March of Dimes is trying to help rectify. All three stories addressed the alarming opioid abuse in our communities and how it is affecting not only adults, but children as well. The crisis is so bad that the March of Dimes is appealing to the Department of Children and Families to reduce their caseloads in order to prioritize and treat babies addicted to opiates. Kids are being removed from their homes at alarming rates, often with only the clothes on their backs. All of their toys and belongings, if they are allowed to take anything with them, are thrown in trash bags.

In one article, Department of Public Health spokesman Scott Zoback said “between March 2014 and August 2015, the state received a total of 3,452 reports of substance-exposed newborns.” Reporter Jessica Heslam noted, “Babies should be safe and snug in their mothers’ arms or cribs or baby seats — not crawling around hundreds of empty heroin bags on the filthy floor of their homes.” She goes on to say that, “Addiction is a horrible affliction, and I’m sympathetic, but that baby boy deserves so much better. All children do.”

What a crushingly sad state of affairs for so many of the youngest members of our society.

Trouble the Dog was “born” nine years ago in response to a tragic sequence of events in the life of one young child. In plush form, Trouble has helped provide comfort to thousands of children in crisis since that time. While he is not the solution to the opioid epidemic, he offers the tactile comfort young children crave during times of crisis.

We are working with various agencies to establish a distribution network for plush Trouble dogs to make sure they get into the arms of children when they need him most. Stay tuned for more information on this new initiative.

In the meantime, you can shop for Trouble and make a difference for a child in your life.