Did you know that nearly half of foster parents stop fostering within the first year? And one of the most often-cited reasons is lack of community support.
Your faith community can play a valuable role in changing the experience and outcomes for kids and families in foster and kinship care.
Is Your Faith Community Foster Friendly?
Here Are The 3 Best Practices To Become A Foster Friendly Faith Community.
Ensure volunteers in child and youth ministry are trauma aware.
Offer trauma awareness training to staff, children and youth volunteers annually to ensure those serving in children and youth ministries are aware of the impact trauma can have on infants, children and teens.
Support kinship, adoptive and foster families.
Launch a ministry to support foster, kinship and adoptive families. America’s Kids Belong offers ideas and tools to help.
Teach on foster / adoption care at least once annually.
Teach in a main gathering on God’s heart for vulnerable children and families and give people an opportunity to respond. People of faith are significantly more likely to say yes to foster care and adoption than the general population. Your community can be part of changing who waits by reducing the gap in certified foster families.
Colorado Kids Belong Foster Friendly faith communities follow two of these three best practices to connect with and care for foster families.
Get To Know The Families In Your Community
A great first step as your community leans in to supporting kinship and foster families well is to connect with the families already in your community.
While they often won’t ask for help, be assured they will appreciate your outreach and interest in understanding and supporting their needs.
This assessment template offers a great starting point for you to adapt and use to connect with resource families already in your community.
