Project Helps Children Find Families for Themselves

Imagine a program that gives waiting children the chance to act in a play. Consider a show that results in a girl recording a CD because of her singing talent. Envision a course that teaches African American boys about their heritage and ends with a trip to Africa. What if these services resulted in adoption for participating children? These opportunities were available through the Bandele Project. Named for an African boy's name meaning "follow me home" or "born away from home," Bandele demonstrates that faith communities are a resource not only for recruitment, but for helping waiting children make friends, develop self esteem, and explore artistic talents.

Involving Children

Spaulding for Children staff designed Bandele to help waiting African American children in Detroit, Michigan find families. To find prospective parents, staff sought help from a center of the African American community-the church. Recognizing the church's role in community building and support, Bandele staff held social and artistic activities for waiting children in churches. Activities included a fashion show, play performances, and the Rites of Passage program-a curriculum in which African American boys studied their heritage and visited Africa as a final project.

The Bandele play, Share Our Lives as Our Own, written by Robert Douglas, premiered at an African American museum and focused on two families considering adoption and two African American boys waiting to be adopted. Fourteen children who were available for adoption played both adult and children's roles in the original performance.

According to Spaulding's president, Addie Williams, the play was more than just entertainment. After showcasing their personalities and talents, "The children were able to recruit families for themselves. All the kids that participated in the play were adopted, and they were so successful in their performance that they developed self-esteem resulting in positive changes in their behavior at home." Many foster parents, Williams added, saw such a dramatic change in their children's behavior after the play that they decided to adopt. Since the original performance, the play has been performed in other cities and one girl was even approached to make a CD and music video.

The children involved were referred by participating agencies, and transported to church events by an agency or Bandele staff person. Children took part in community and religious activities while being featured in recruitment venues such as a Bandele photolisting book and bookmarks for use in church members' Bibles. When prospective families were identified, Bandele staff referred them to participating agencies on a rotating basis.

Developing Relationships

Spaulding staff started Bandele with a 1992 federal grant and five churches. The project was run by a coordinator, two church liaisons, a youth coordinator, and a support staff person. After the initial grant period, Bandele staff received a four-year award to continue. At the project's close in 1999, 15 churches and 15 agencies were involved.

A primary issue for project staff was finding interested churches. They approached congregations through personal connections, always going with a church member who volunteered to help gain entry. They found out who held power in each church-the pastor, reverend, minister, deacon, or trustee board-and approached that person with the project goals. Staff inquired whether adoption was already of concern to a particular church. Establishing links with pastors and churches that took strong interest in waiting children proved essential.

Sharing Lessons

Bandele staff quickly discovered that aligning their missions with the churches' was a key in building partnerships. Congregations and pastors who saw the mission of Bandele as linked with theirs found many ways to involve waiting children in their communities. Bandele also found success in congregations where child welfare agencies and churches could both benefit. Agencies were well equipped to teach young couples to parent, support grandparents parenting their grandchildren, and build child tutoring programs.

Bandele staff also learned that they needed to establish an agreement between churches and agencies to clearly outline the project's goals and vision. In addition, staff specified what information the participating agency should track as well as how and when to report it.

The Bandele Project proved that investment in a faith community is a great way to achieve permanency and further recruitment efforts. The project succeeded because it operated within the faith community and effectively strengthened both the children and the churches.

To learn more, contact Spaulding at 248-443-7080.

According to Addie Williams, president of Spaulding for Children, organizations that want to collaborate with African American churches must be members of the particular religious community and/or develop cultural competence. Cultural competence involves doing your homework: learn about the community, attend events within it, and understand how behaviors might be interpreted in different cultural contexts. A culturally competent recruiter knows:

*who the church's members are,

*the appropriate way to dress,

*the church's founding history,

*who the church leaders are,

*what the services are like, and

*what programs they have worked with in the past.

By knowing the faith community's rules and
goals, an agency can avoid imposing its own.