Protecting Children, Strengthening Families
Ministries helping prevent abuse, keep children safe, support families in crisis, and more.
At MinistryWatch, we help Christians become more faithful, generous, and effective stewards by advocating transparency, accountability, and efficiency in Christian ministries. That means we often report on waste, fraud, and abuse—not only to expose wrongdoing, but also to offer lessons ministries and donors can learn from.
But we also want to highlight ministries doing excellent work. That’s the purpose of this column: to spotlight ministries making a difference in their communities and around the world. We hope this weekly roundup encourages you and reminds you that faithful stewardship is often simple and steady, and that for every story we publish about poor stewardship, many others are prayerfully laboring to steward well.
And because April is Child Abuse Prevention Month, we are paying special attention to ministries working to protect children, strengthen families, and create safer environments for the vulnerable:
Photo via zeroabuseproject.org
Zero Abuse Project
Though not a Christian ministry, Zero Abuse Project is a 501(c)(3) that is using Child Abuse Prevention Month and National Crime Victims’ Rights Week to highlight a hard truth: most child abuse is committed not by strangers, but by someone a child knows and trusts. As part of that effort, the organization is hosting A Safer World for Kids on April 19 in Gainesville, Virginia, featuring survivor stories, professional testimony, and guests, including Anthony Edwards, Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones, and NBC4’s Julie Carey.
Founded in 2018, Zero Abuse Project says it is now midway through its 2025–2027 strategic plan, pursuing long-term change through a trauma-informed approach to prevention, response, and resilience. Its work includes education, professional training, survivor support, advocacy, forensic interview training, and tools to strengthen investigations and accountability. It provides “basic and advanced training for faith and child protection professionals, and a seminary course, which can be adapted to any faith tradition.”
Photo via safe-families.org.
Safe Families for Children
After losing her job and home, Vanessa needed a safe place for her son while she worked to regain stability. Through Safe Families for Children, Hilary’s family stepped in to host him, giving Vanessa time to find housing, employment, and daycare. Her son returned home without entering foster care, and four years later the two families are still connected.
In 2003, after years of working with children and families in the child welfare system, Safe Families founder Dr. Dave Anderson began asking whether the Church could help prevent abuse and neglect by stabilizing families before they collapse. The ministry works to keep children safe and families together by surrounding parents in crisis with volunteer support rather than pushing families unnecessarily toward foster care. Its model connects families with host homes, family coaches, and family friends, while parents retain custody and work toward stability.
Safe Families says it now has 97 local chapters, serves in 18 countries, has arranged more than 78,000 hostings since its inception, and reports a 98% reunification rate in the United States. Safe Families for Children has a 5 Star rating and a C Transparency Grade in the MinistryWatch database, and a Donor Confidence Score of 95.
Photo via Better Together website.
Better Together
April marks the start of Nationwide Days of Second Chances, a Better Together initiative built around “hope, dignity, and new beginnings.” As the ministry encourages volunteers to show up at job fairs and help open doors for job seekers, it is also casting a broader vision: bringing its family-strengthening model to every community in America.
Founded in Naples, Florida, in 2015, Better Together says it helps families in crisis before children enter foster care by uniting churches, employers, and neighbors to provide temporary host families, mentoring, and job connections. The ministry says it is 100% privately funded, volunteer-driven, and community-led. Better Together says its work focuses on keeping children safe, addressing root causes of hardship, helping parents find work, and building lasting community around families in crisis. On its site, the ministry presents itself as a preventive alternative to foster care, emphasizing rapid, local, church-connected support. Better Together has a 5 Star rating and a D Transparency Grade in the MinistryWatch database, and a Donor Confidence Score of 71.
Evangelical Council for Abuse Prevention
Photo via ECAP’s website.
Next week, the Evangelical Council for Abuse Prevention (ECAP) will host a webinar titled Clarity and Care: Why Every Ministry Needs a Code of Conduct. A code of conduct is a formal policy that outlines
ethical and behavioral expectations for leaders, employees, volunteers, board members, and others representing a ministry. It helps ensure conduct aligns with the organization’s legal obligations, values, and core identity.
On April 14, from 2-3:30 p.m., Attorney Lane Paulsen will interview National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) President Walter Kim. The conversation will focus on the importance of establishing a code of conduct, its key aspects (especially related to child protection), and a guide on implementing such codes.
MinistryWatch has written extensively about ECAP’s work. You can find that coverage here, including a podcast interview with board member Jeff Dalrymple.
G.R.A.C.E.
Lastly, Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment (GRACE) offers a helpful set of recommendations for abuse-prevention and response books for churches, parents, counselors, and ministry leaders. The organization features titles on building child protection policies, caring for survivors, understanding offender behavior, counseling trauma victims, and helping families discuss body safety with children. Several of its resources are aimed directly at churches and ministry leaders, modeling GRACE’s wider focus on equipping Christian institutions to prevent abuse and respond wisely when it occurs.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was updated to include Evangelical Council for Abuse Prevention.
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