Bring Family Connection
to your Community
Family Connection Sites are often hosted by churches or nonprofits who have a heart to use their buildings to provide a safe safe for families who are working towards reunification from the foster care system.
This is a call and an opportunity to activate faith spaces
to advocate for reunification and to support families struggling with poverty-related issues, which is a fight that has been missing from many faith spaces when it comes to the system. Family Connection makes this program expandable by providing step-by-step training, ongoing mentoring, and support.
*While this is a program designed as an outreach program for faith organizations, it’s critical to that these spaces to be safe for families of all religious/spiritual beliefs and all religious/spiritual traumas.
Families who are in foster care are given a very limited amount of time together, and often that time is supervised. For many families, they feel anything but ‘normal.’ Family Connection strives to create spaces that have activities and comfortable environment for families to spend their time together healing, sharing a meal, playing, and experiencing normal even if it’s just for a couple of hours.
Since many families requires supervision, Family Connection trains community volunteers to provide supervision in a relational and supportive capacity. All supervisors do take notes that are turned into the Family Support Teams, but they get the opportunity to engage in relationship, providing peer parental support, help where it’s needed, and encouragement throughout the journey. Supervisors and Family Connection Leaders have an incredible opportunity to also connect with the foster parents that are care for kids while they are in a season of care, and to support the caseworkers who are often working heavy caseloads and long hours.
Holidays and birthday are so incredibly important to all children and their parents and those can be times that are really hard during seasons of separation. Sites can make a big deal about holidays, decorating, helping with gifts or a cake, taking photos and making space to help make memories during difficult seasons!
Ideas on how to support families during the holidays will be provided, most ideas require little cost and activating volunteers to use their gifts (like baking sugar cookies, or making birthday cards for bio parents.
The hope and vision of Family Connection is to see families reunify with healing, stability, and community.
Additional outreach programs including support to families following reunification are accessible to sites as they love families back home.
Below is a description of what it entails to start a Family Connection Site within a local church or nonprofit! If you have not already,
watch the Family Connection Documentary first. Fill out the form at the bottom of this page to start a conversation or ask any questions!
Most of these activities are items churches may already own, or can come via donations for the community! A list of recommended items will be provided.
While sites recruit volunteers, all training for supervisors is provided through Family Connection to make this program expandable and consistent. Supervisors engage with ongoing training throughout the year to bring awareness and education, and to empower advocacy.