Joanne Goldblum
Founder, The Diaper Bank
www.thediaperbank.org
Some people dream about changing the lives of children. Others actually do it.
Social worker Joanne Goldblum was unable to wrap her head around the uncomfortable truth that a significant population of American children grow up in conditions so poor that clean diapers aren’t even a reality. Frustrated but inspired, she saw a need she could address, and that need was distributing diapers to the poor. The idea of a diaper bank took some time to launch, but four years in and successfully distributing 140,000 diapers a month, she has become America’s Diaper Genie.
Joanne has been recognized not only in local media but also nationally in People magazine and on CNN, and she was named the New Haven Register Person of the Year 2007. She has helped thousands of children over the years and this year she anticipates reaching about 800 more.
What we learned from Joanne: “We can really get anything done and we can really make a change.”
The Diaper Lady
“I’m a social worker. I went to people’s houses and I worked primarily with chronically homeless families and families affected by substance abuse, all in New Haven. The thing that everyone had in common was abject poverty. New Haven is a city that has real wealth and real poverty within a mile of each other, like a lot of other cities. One of the things that I noticed all the time with these families was that they didn’t have the hygiene products they needed. They didn’t have diapers. If I went in the morning it was clear the kids were still in a diaper from the day before. The moms would empty a diaper, dry them, and try to use them again. It never occurred to me that there was no subsidy for this. I spent two years trying to figure this out and why there wasn’t anything to help. What I came to find out was that food stamps were good for food, but they couldn’t buy any paper products, or any hygiene products. Diapers are in the same grouping as pet food, alcohol, and cigarettes.”
The Business Model
“We are set on the model of a food bank, so we collect diapers and cash donations and then distribute diapers through agencies. We get diapers donated through drives, we raise money, and we buy diapers at a much-reduced rate. There are some companies that have donated through their foundations, but none of the diaper companies donate.”
Starting With a Full-Time Career
“It was hard, but what actually made it really great was that my family was really supportive of it. My kids were 6, 10, and 11, and we did a lot with their school and my family got excited about it. I had talked about and thought about it so much that they were happy to see me actually do it. You can do anything if you really, really want to. I have never taken a salary at the Diaper Bank and I feel very lucky to be able to do that. It’s important to do things for other people.”
Just Do It
“I did jump into things. I bought a domain name for $10 and one of my sons’ eighth grade friends built a Web site. We just did it. I got a cell phone on my friends and family plan. I didn’t really set things up in a way of thinking how things would be sustained, I just sort of said, ‘Okay, I need a phone,’ and I just did it.”
Biggest Challenge
“The biggest challenge was trying to find a way to buy diapers in bulk, and this is one of those business things I didn’t really think of as I’m a social worker. I never considered what it meant to buy a truckload of diapers. It never occurred to me that I would have to use a power jack and that I would have to take the diapers off of the truck. It was inventory, and how do you keep track of this stuff? I’m much better with ideas than I am with concrete stuff.”
Concrete Stuff
“I have a great, great board of directors, and at this point we have two employees who keep the Diaper Bank running beautifully. We would not have been able to grow as an all-volunteer agency. We were just too big and we had to have people who were spending their whole day thinking about it and devoted to making sure that things happened, like talking to agencies, getting diapers, and making sure we had an infrastructure.”
Support Groups
“It’s been amazing—friends and family members have been so supportive, and two of my friends write our grants and they spend a lot of time doing it. My mom is on our board and she does a lot. In the beginning, I thought it would only be my friends. When we started to get support from other places, that’s when it really got exciting. It was that other people thought it was a good idea.”
Recognition
“Being awarded the Robert Wood Johnson Community Health Leader Award was a high point of my career. The award, which recognizes creativity, innovation, and commitment to improving health outcomes at the community level, is given out nationally to 10 people a year. To have my idea recognized as important by Robert Wood Johnson made the whole thing much more real for me.”
Disappointment
“I wanted the big diaper companies to give me diapers, and that did not happen. I thought it would be easier to get companies to help us or to get stores to give up their seconds, like some of the local stores will give us the diapers that would otherwise be thrown away, but lots of stores don’t or won’t. They throw stuff away rather than give them to us, and that’s disappointing.”
Balancing It All
“I am really lucky. I work some in the office but I work out of my house, I work a lot at night and on the weekends. My kids are older so it’s not like they need constant care, so when they are doing homework, I can work. And with the freedom of a cell phone you can talk to people anywhere.”
The Ultimate Hope
“That there would be a change in legislation so that we would have a hygiene subsidy added to food stamps. I would be so happy and I would take a vacation!”
This Featured Lady was profiled by Kristin Herold, a freelance writer based in Hermosa Beach, CA.
Ladies Who Launch is asking you … what are YOU hoping to change? And have you taken any steps toward doing it? Let everyone know in the Comments section below!
OMG! What a wonderful story, I have to tell you it shocked me that diaper companies would not donate and most of all that stores would rather throw away diapers instead of donating them. Do you suppose they are afraid of lawsuits? People will sue for just about any reason these days and small stores might be afraid of the repercussions if something happened with one of their diapers. Now, for the big guys go figure!
Go, Joanne. What a wonderful example of one person leading the charge and making a significant change in their community! Maybe LWL members should all email the diaper companies to “inspire” them to donate to their local communities and start a movement (pun intended). They all have a community services or outreach department who should see this as not just a good thing to do, but a media oppty as well. It’d be a good chance to show the power of LWL as a larger organization.
What an inspiration Joanne is! I applaude her hard work and dedication to this important cause. I was flabbergasted to read that the big diaper companies would rather throw away instead of donate!!! That is mind boggling and very, very disappointing. I shouldn’t be surprised.
I love these inspiring stories!