Faith-based Communities Respond to the Call
The plight of foster children is a particular challenge to the Christian community. Many children are victims of abuse, neglect and abandonment. When their situation becomes severe, they are removed from their homes and placed in protective custody. At this time of crisis, children need loving caretakers to temporarily share their homes and other volunteers to wrap support around these families.Faith-based programs share two common themes. First, recruiters must learn and respect the rules of the religious groups they approach. Second, recruiters must establish a lasting relationship with members of the faith community.
Help One Child in Los Altos, Calif., has responded to the need by encouraging
individuals and families in the Christian community to become licensed foster parents. They also actively recruit others to support the foster children through a variety of volunteer services such as baby-sitting, longer-term respite care for an overnight or weekend, tutoring, mentoring, transportation and prayer.
Because each foster child or sibling group has a great need for individual attention, Help One Child suggests that a family or single adult focus on caring for only one child or sibling group in order to meet all the needs of the child.
There are 700 churches in Santa Clara County and 250 churches in San Mateo County. Churches are asked to host a Help One Child presentation or announcement during a worship service, a call, or at a small group meeting or "ministry faire."
Help One Child also promotes a fost-adopt program. Also known as concurrent planning, at-risk children are placed in families interested in adoption who are also willing to provide foster care while reunification efforts with the biological family are being made. Because this program is not designed for the parent who
is "weak at heart," Help One Child offers spiritual support and counsel to parents entering this program.
The North American Council on Adoptable Children (NACAC) regularly profiles successful programs from Judeo-Christian communities in its Recruiting News newsletter.
In North Carolina, the Division of Social Services works in cooperation with the General Baptist State Convention (GBSC) to recruit African American singles and couples to be adoptive and foster parents. Since 1998, the GBSC Adoption and Foster Care Ministry's staff has attended conferences, workshops and Sunday services at churches that express interest. The Ministry's staff works with volunteer project
coordinators in each of the more than 100 congregations currently participating. Outreach to other faith communities and partnerships with the State NAACP and the North Carolina Association of Black Social Workers help promote the initiative.
The Jewish Children's Adoption Network (JCAN) was founded in 1990 to place Jewish children in families where their religion and heritage would not be lost. Recruitment of Jewish families is mostly by word-of-mouth through the staff's
connections with Jewish family service agencies, Jewish communal organizations, rabbis and past adoptive parents. JCAN's exchange services are free and available to the adoption community. JCAN's directors have found that placing children in their religious community increases the chances of finding other receptive adoptive
families, who are willing to cope with special needs.
The Bandele Project in Detroit, Mich., partnered with faith communities not only to find homes for waiting African American children, but also to provide an outlet for social and artistic activities for these children. Started in 1992 by Spaulding for Children, Bandele (an African boy's name meaning "follow me home" or "born away from
home") involved 15 churches and 15 agencies in its seven-year history. Bandele staff learned that membership in the religious community and/or developing cultural competence in the faith community's rules and goals resulted in a successful collaboration.
One Church, One Child is a national adoption education and recruitment project founded in 1980 by Father George Clements, a black Chicago priest who became the first priest in the U.S. to adopt a child. There are now 31 chapters operating in 31 states. Each chapter consists of a network of local churches that seek and refer prospective adoptive parents from their congregations and the community to local government social services, which has children available for adoption. The executive director of Virginia's One Church, One Child Program provides tips to groups trying to work with faith communities in the "Ask the Expert" section of NACAC's newsletter, online at http://www.nacac.org/recruiting_newsletters.html.
Credits: Cynthia Peck
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