Promise686 empowers churches working toward one common goal: to care for vulnerable children. We carry out this mission by equipping churches to support local foster & adoptive families, and biological families in crisis. By training churches on how to create and lead successful Family Advocacy Ministries (FAMs), we’re working toward seeing every child in a safe and loving family, forever.
Care Communities are one tool FAMs use to provide support to vulnerable children and families in need.
WHY CARE COMMUNITIES?
Parents who foster or adopt need to know they’ll be well-supported when a child arrives in their home. Children in foster care, as well as adopted children, have unique needs and require intentional focus from their new parents. Supporting these families in practical, hands-on ways provides a healthier context for a child’s transition into their new home.
Promise686 trains churches to create and maintain volunteer-led Care Communities that provide a strong support system for foster and adoptive families.
Volunteers offer support in the following ways:
- • Bringing weekly meals
- • Supplying or sourcing practical needs (eg. bunk beds, strollers, car seats, clothing)
- • Transporting children to appointments
- • Mentoring children
- • Coordinating volunteers to serve a family
- • Becoming trained to provide respite care
- • And more!
God’s heart for His people is the “pure religion” of James 1:27 – that we would “visit widows and orphans in their affliction.” Caring for orphans and children in foster care is not only for those who adopt or foster children but it is for everyone who desires “pure religion.” Foster and adoptive families need a community to surround them in their calling and this is how we can all be involved.
Parents who foster or adopt need to know they’ll be well-supported when a child arrives in their home. Children in foster care, as well as adopted children, have unique needs and require intentional focus from their new parents. Supporting these families in practical, hands-on ways provides a healthier context for a child’s transition into their new home.
Interesting fact about Care Communities: The national average of families who continue fostering after their first year is about 50%, but when supported by a FAM and its Care Communities, 90% continue fostering into a second year.
"I would have quit fostering if it weren't for my Care Community." - a foster mom in Indiana
Get involved
Do you already attend a church that has a FAM? Take the next step and become a Care Community volunteer! Would you like to bring a FAM to your church so you can serve a foster or adoptive family, or a biological family in crisis? Learn how to start a FAM at your church.
Care Communities in light of Coronavirus
Learn how to serve children and families virtually, providing real care from a safe distance. See our how-to guide here.