Kayla Gerry - Sophomore, Psychology Major

Keira Martin - Junior, Public History major

Alicia Moser - Senior, Christian Ministries Major

Olivia Snyder - Sophomore, Elementary Education

Anna Woods - Freshman, Youth Ministry Major

• Parents: facing crisis & are in need for stable/safe environment for children for short timespan

• Children: need temporary home so they are not at risk for neglect or abuse

• Host Families: alleviate the problem and provide safe environment for children so parents can overcome challenges

• Family Friends: another option where children can go to a nurturing environment while family seek support

• Support members (Family Coach's): trained staff to help support parents and build coping mechanisms when facing challenges

• Church & Community Support: help identify the problem & work to support the family

• Emphasis: Safe Families is NOT a foster care or adoption service

• https://safefamilies.org/involvement/#:~:text=Every%20year%2C%20several%20million%20children,a%20part%20of%20the%20solution?

• https://safe-families.org/get help/childwelfare/#:~:text=We%20help%20parents%20in%20crisis,and%20keep%20their%20families%20intact.

Economic:

• 2023 Data shows neglect as the primary reason associated with removal in 62% of cases

• Studies show that children from households with fewer resources are three times as likely to be substantiated for abuse and about seven times more likely to be substantiated for neglect than other children

• The child welfare system response often is not effective at distinguishing between intentional harm (such as a refusal to provide food and water for one’s child) and harm resulting from a lack of access to adequate food, housing, and other material resources

• Helping families address basic needs is an effective way to prevent child maltreatment and involvement with child welfare

• A huge part of effectively providing economic supports is offering an opportunity to learn, to connect with resources that can help a family plan for the future

https://www.casey.org/economic-supports-research/#:~:text=Studies%20show%20that%20supporting%20families,child%20and%20family%20well%2Dbeing. 

Social:

• "On any given day, approximately 400,000 children, disproportionately poor and of color, are living in state-run foster care systems in the United States" (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2016, The AFCARS Report).

• Some harms these children suffer are caused not by individual actors but by the foster care systems themselves:

  • Placement instability

  • Inappropriate use of group facilities and institutions

  • Failure to nurture strong connections with biological families (birth parents)

• About 55,000 children in American foster care reside in congregate care (group homes, residential treatment facilities, psychiatric institutions, or emergency shelters)

  • 41% of children placed in congregate care had no documented clinical need for such a placement. When unnecessarily placed in congregate care, placements can cause physical and non-physical harm to children in foster care.

• Source: "Violence Against Children: Making Human Rights Real" Edited by Gertrud Lenzer

  
  

• “About 35% of American adolescents live without one of their parents, and around 40% of American children are born outside of marriage.” 

• Family breakdown, which is a major contributing factor to the need for foster care, also “fuels poverty,” making upward social mobility very difficult. Researchers David Autor and David Figlio found that “neighborhoods and schools are less important than the ‘direct effect of family structure itself.’”

• Source: https://ifstudies.org/blog/family-breakdown-and-americas-welfare-system

Human Impact:

https://standtogether.org/stories/strong-safe-communities/safe-families-foster-care-preventive-helps-families-in-need#:~:text=In%2016%20years%20of%20supporting,on%20average%2C%20is%2045%20days.

• Short-term care options for a family average of 45 days in Safe Families

• Encourage the "village," using Family coaches to change short-term foster care family work

https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5272&context=faculty_scholarship

• It helps incarcerated parents maintain parental rights. Termination of parental rights given: 92.9 percent of the cases in which the mother was incarcerated, and 91.4 percent of the incarcerated fathers if both parents were incarcerated 100% of the time rights were taken.

https://cafo.org/foster-care-statistics/

• only 3% receive kinship care

• 13% of children in foster care from 3-4 years, 7% spent 5 years

• 30-50% of families decide to quit

• Must be at least 25 years old, emotionally and financially stable, mature, law abiding, healthy, and active

• Must be willing to engage in a long-term friendship with a family in need, agree to not use drugs, and refrain from using profanity or engaging in other negative behavior that may impact a child

Preparation:

• Must complete training and pass a background check

Helpful Training:

• All Host Families are required to complete the Safe Families training. This can be done online or in person in your community

Resources, Podcasts, Exemplars:

• Safe Families Website

• SOS Podcast, Adoption Foster Kinship: Creating a Family Podcast

• Laura Leigh Safe Families Area Director

• All solved through healthy & growing relationships

• Life is a river and raising kids is a river, we can look at where we stand to help along the way in that river

• Never want to hurt in relationships

  • be at the same level of what families can offer

    
    

How is it restorative:

• Love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8)

• Made to be in community and build one another up

How is it the work of Christians?

• Called to be brave & encourage the church to be brave

• Called to let the Holy Spirit work within us & through us

How will we do it differently because of the view of Biblical Theism?

• Imago Dei: everyone has inherent worth and dignity (including children and parents in tough situations)

• Called to love our neighbors

• Have a calling to care for those who are struggling (Isaiah 1:17 James 1:28)

• Helping those in need is serving God (Matthew 25:35-40)

• "Safe families and the Church Podcast" Cite

• "Keeping Families Together" The Ridge Community Church Podcast

• Even parents with good Christian backgrounds have struggles & often need this kind of support

• Volunteer roles: People who donate food & gift cards for host families (resource friends), some who give rides or provide childcare (family friends), people who work with more structure that can provide further resources for struggling parents – often retired educators or social workers (coaches)  

• It’s easy to get discouraged & overwhelmed in all of this – it's heavy work, & it requires a lot of trust toward God 

• Separation of church & state = systems created that care for kids instead of the church

  • church's were no longer responsible for local orphans

• Concept: “what if we stopped child abuse before it started and what if we stood at the front door of child welfare and helped families before abuse occurred” (time: 10:05)

• 90% of all the child abuse calls that America gets do not move forward into help

• Young adults were more vulnerable if they were raised in foster care

  • human trafficking, early unwed pregnancies, drug abuse, & homelessness

• Staff, government, and people cannot raise children like families can

  • Safe families: ask ordinary neighbors to love families that are struggling and take care of kids for a while, while families take time to get on their feet

  • No legal involved

• Church = build relationships

• No host families host on their own (community involvement)

• How can I serve: how can I meet the needs of people I am ministering too

  • All solved through relationship

  • Love covers a multitude of sins

  • In relationship you never want to hurt

  • Invite the church to be brave & let the Holy Spirit work in you