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The Compassion Closet exists to show the love of Christ by providing quality clothing and tangible goods to foster children and their families. We also desire to serve birth families, aging-out youth, kinship placements, and domestic/international adoptive families as God allows and the needs arise. The Compassion Closet exists to provide quick-turn assistance to foster, kinship, adoptive, and other families in the Eastern Tennessee area.

Foster care is often messy… most often, placements are last-minute and the families have little time to ensure they have the specific items these children need. The problem is made worse by the fact that often children enter the system with only the clothes they are wearing. These factors can cause the first 24-48 hours of a new placement to be far more stressful for everyone involved than they should be. This is the core reason for the Compassion Closet.

Meet the Founders

The closet was started in 2013 by Rob and Julie Gillen as a means of helping other families as they had been helped while fostering. Over the years, the closet has grown and now has five locations and is supported by a number of churches, organizations, and individuals from all over the Knoxville area. Julie is the Executive Director and handles administrative tasks, ordering supplies, managing emails, and many other behind-the-scenes tasks, while also being a regular, welcoming face at the West Knoxville location. Rob handles much of the maintenance at the West location and is a member of the Compassion Closet Board.

The Closet is a partner of Knoxville Area Foster Care and Adoption Ministries (KAFCAM). The Compassion Closet is incorporated in the State of Tennessee and is a federally-recognized non-profit (501c3).

Making an Impact

This effort would be worthless if it didn’t directly affect those around us. We are thankful to report that since opening our doors in 2013, the Compassion Closet has supported hundreds of families and thousands of children. The following are a few media clips explaining the role that the Compassion Closet has had in East Tennessee: