Ministries Making a Difference

Ministries supporting children and families in the foster care system

The foster care world can be a dark place. There were almost 350,000 children in the foster system at the end of 2023, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services, most often due to parental neglect or drug abuse. The need is great, and the system is complicated. Somewhere between 30-50% of foster families drop out in their first year—burnout, lack of support, and feeling unprepared and ill-equipped for the intense challenges of trauma–induced behavior issues are leading causes.

I’ve watched extended family members struggle through these very things. It’s emotionally grueling—and good outcomes are not guaranteed. Yet Christ calls us to be light in dark places. This week, we highlight ministries working in this area—supporting families opening their homes to children in the foster system, providing housing for teenagers aging out, equipping families to break the cycle of neglect, and helping provide a safe home for children—because it really takes the whole body of Christ working in tandem to walk out God’s pure, sacrificial love to a broken and hurting world.

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Photo via Facebook

A team from Wake Cross Roads Baptist Church in Raleigh, N.C., spent a day during ServeNC serving the residents of one of Baptist Children’s Homes of North Carolina girls’ homes. The team painted bedrooms in the girls’ cottage, cleaned out gutters, trimmed hedges, played games, and cooked lunch. BCH of NC has 4 stars and a C transparency grade in the MinistryWatch database, and a donor confidence score of 70.

Photo via AG News

Every Father’s Day weekend, a group from Trinity Assembly of God in Fairmont-Whitehall, West Virginia, breaks a sweat engaging in community service projects, like building decks, putting up drywall, and building home additions so people can adopt. This year, as part of its ministry to foster care families, the outreach partnered with New Vision Village to construct two tiny (15 by 28 feet) homes for young men aging out of the foster care system.

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Photo via Facebook

At the end of July, 16 men graduated from New Horizons Ministries’ InsideOut Dad class, which helped men wrestle with questions of how to break cycles of incarceration, fatherlessness and abuse. New Horizons helps families in Colorado build healthy homes after incarceration, and supports families affected by chronic imprisonment. New Horizons has 5 stars and an A transparency grade in the MinistryWatch database, and a donor confidence score of 92.

Photo via Facebook

FaithBridge Foster Care is celebrating 18 years of recruiting, training and supporting foster care families through partnerships with local churches. In that time, they say they have served over 6,000 children. FaithBridge is Georgia’s largest, Christ-centered child placing agency, according to the ministry. FaithBridge Foster Care has 5 stars and a C transparency grade in the MinistryWatch database, and a donor confidence score of 98.