Support by Fostering Love

May is National Foster Care Month. Around the country, the faith community is working with child welfare to recruit more foster families and increase funding for services as the number of children entering the system is increasing at an overwhelming rate. Having 5,734 Colorado children in foster care on a given day in  2017 is a problem, especially with only 2,200 licensed foster homes.. To confront this, we welcome friends, families, churches, and support team members to join Project 1.27 as we foster love during the month of May and beyond

​There are many ways that we ALL can be a part of the solution by fostering love to kids in our own backyards.

• Consider being a foster or adoptive parent yourself! Maybe it’s stretching you out of your comfort zone, but you’re feeling the Spirit’s prompting. If so, join us for an Info Night and see what happens!
  
• Become a certified respite provider. Although you can’t accommodate a child living in your house full-time, could you provide care for a weekend or week at a time? Respite providers allow for foster families to take much-needed breaks so they can sustain the quality care they give to children from hard places. Attend an Info Night to learn about the process of certification.
  
• Provide wrap-around services to a foster or adoptive family. As a Support Team Member, you step in to fill the gaps that emerge when a family is pouring their life into a child who desperately needs them. By bringing over a meal, helping with yard work, rallying prayer warriors, or babysitting on a date night, you are giving a foster or adoptive family the gift of perseverance.
  
• Mentor a child in the system. Whether it’s building a relationship with a foster or adopted child in your friend’s home or formally becoming a CASA or Choice Mentor, giving a child a healthy life connection is foundational in bringing about healing!
  
• Give to organizations that recruit, train, and support foster and adoptive families- like Project 1.27 for example! In order to recruit and provide faith-based state-approved foster care training for Christian families followed by experienced case management, it requires $3,000 per foster family. Our goal in 2018 is to recruit 101 new foster families to contribute to the state of Colorado’s need to recruit 1,200 foster families over the next 2 years. Donate in May or June and receive a Foster Love water bottle. Set up a monthly gift and receive a Foster Love gift pack.

In the story of Farmer Herman and the Flooding Barn, by Jason Weber, a farmer stares down a problem that seems insurmountable. It is very evident that he cannot resolve the issue by himself, so he invites the community to join together and solve the problem. This mirrors the importance of banding together to tackle a challenge of epic proportions, such as, how do we foster love to help resolve the issues in foster care?

Jason Weber rightfully reports that we need:

“More than enough foster homes for every child in care to have an ideal placement
More than enough adoptive homes for every waiting child to have a family
More than enough help for biological families who are trying to stay together and trying to get back together
More than enough support for foster, adoptive, and biological families”

How will you help FOSTER LOVE for kids in foster care?​