Our vision is to fulfill God's promise "to set the lonely in families." We work toward this goal by mobilizing church communities to care for vulnerable children.
We know many people are unaware of the child welfare crisis. We also know when people become aware, they many times would like to get involved but aren’t sure where to start.
That’s where we come in.
Promise686 equips churches to:
- Raise awareness around the needs of vulnerable children
- Help prevent children from going into foster care by supporting biological families in need
- Recruit and equip foster & adoptive families
- Create Care Communities for those caring for at-risk kids
We call this model Family Advocacy Ministries (FAMs). Ultimately, our hope is to see every child in a safe, loving family, forever. FAMs help us get closer to this goal by creating support systems for foster & adoptive families, and biological families in crisis. Learn more about FAMs and ways to get involved.
OUR HISTORY
2007-2020
2007
A group out of Perimeter Church in Johns Creek, GA had a passion to live the promise God makes in Psalm 68:6 "to set the lonely in families.” They began raising awareness around adoption needs and hoped to encourage the Church to join in this mission. Because the financial cost of adoption is a leading barrier to children and families connecting for a lifetime, they launched Promise686, with a primary focus on offering adoption grants.
2008
This group of Promise686 founding members lived this promise first-hand through adopting and fostering. One of the critical founding couples had to wait seven years to bring their daughter home from Kyrgyzstan. God used their wait in particular to birth Promise686. Their adoption story became the heartbeat and inspiration behind what would soon be a state-wide ministry.
2009
Promise686 officially became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and began offering adoption grants to families outside of Perimeter Church. While this was impactful work, our Board of Directors and key volunteers believed this ministry could and should expand to foster care as well.
2010
Our mission was clear: to mobilize church communities to care for vulnerable children. We initiated working with private agencies to ensure greater awareness of the needs of children in foster care and also began equipping churches to care for local foster families.
2012
After two years of placing volunteers around foster families, Promise686 developed a relationship with a local county office of the Division of Family Children Services. This partnership’s purpose was to raise up 100 new foster families from local churches.
2013
God allowed remarkable progress, especially in one particular county (Gwinnett), and we continued recruiting new foster families in 27 additional counties across Georgia. This started what we now call The Promise Network, a group of churches and affiliate partners who work together toward a common mission.
2014
At this point, we still offered adoption grants but grew to focus on mobilizing churches to care for vulnerable children by recruiting, equipping, and supporting foster families.
2016
Preventing children from going into the child welfare system is critical in caring for vulnerable children, so we began emphasizing the importance of supporting biological families in need, with the goal of preserving these families when possible.
2017
Our strategy was finalized and boiled down to three steps: prevention, intervention, and connection. Promise686 equipped churches to: help prevent children from going into foster care by supporting biological families in crisis, intervene when a child did go into foster care by caring for local foster families, and connect children and families by providing adoption resources.
2018
We launched a ministry model called Family Advocacy Ministry (FAM), which is now our primary area of focus. We help churches create and lead successful FAMs, supporting foster & adoptive families, and biological families in crisis.
2019
The Promise Network grew to an all-time high: 24 out-of-state Affiliate Partners and 506 churches nationwide. Chris Tomlin's For Others Collective became a special partner and ally, helping Promise686 to recruit and equip new church partners around the country.
2020
While we still offer adoption grants, our primary focus is to help churches implement FAMs, providing what at-risk kids need most–strong families. Ultimately, we partner with churches and affiliates nationwide to make a difference in the lives of vulnerable children.