Serving as a James 1.27 Church

Over the last 5 years, Project 1.27 has worked to support churches in being foster and adoption friendly. We used the name Foster Friendly Church as a designation to help those involved in foster care quickly identify a church as a trauma-informed congregation where children and families involved with foster care and adoption would be welcomed and supported.

Over the past year, God has been guiding Project 1.27 board and staff in implementing new programs to support churches interested in serving vulnerable children and families before children need to be removed. We’ve also been working more and more with kinship (relative) caregivers. God has blessed us with this verse in Isaiah 43, giving us a glimpse of all He is and will be doing.

Behold, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
​I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

One new thing is changing our identifier for churches from Foster Friendly Church to James 1:27 Church. Foster Care is a concept that vulnerable families try to avoid and as churches do more and more work to keep families together, we think James 1:27 will be more friendly to those families and still serve as a quick identifier for those involved with foster care and adoption. If your church has already completed the steps to be a Foster Friendly Church, your church is identified on our James 1:27 church webpage. If your church would like to be identified as a James 1:27 church or just take advantage of Project 1.27’s great trauma-informed church training, click here for more information.

What are some of the new things at Project 1.27?

• Programs that serve children and families by caring for kinship, foster, and biological families. Learn more about- FamiliesCare and the Neighbor Program!
• New community collaborations that provide more resources, positive experiences, and connections for Colorado children in kinship, foster and adoptive families.
• To reflect the new things God is doing through Project 1.27, we also have a new vision statement, mission statement and tagline.

VISION: Every child in a nurturing, well-supported family.

MISSION: To engage, inspire, recruit and resource churches and families to serve children in our community through faith-based family preservation, kinship care, foster care, and adoption.

TAGLINE: Kids need families. Families need You.

There are some things at Project 1.27 that haven’t changed. Project 1.27 remains an organization where deep faith and a huge vision come together to fulfill the Christian’s responsibility to care for kids in foster care. Go to our Provide Family page for info on becoming a foster or adoptive parent, including our upcoming Info Meetings. The new things just provide ways for God’s people to support vulnerable kids in new ways, including preventing them from ever needing to be in out-of-home placement. God is doing a new thing and showing us new ways to live out James 1:27-
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Pure and undefiled religion is this, to care for orphans in their distress.

In Scripture, the word orphan means “a child without the protection and provision of a family” and there are many kids in our community that need protection and provision. We can help them, and their caregivers, discover God’s way in the wilderness and streams in the desert.

In the coming weeks, I hope you will join Project 1.27 in being part of God’s new things because-
Kids need families. Families need YOU!
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By Shelly Radic, Project 1.27 President

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