Arkansas Baptist Children's Homes and Family Ministries has been ministering to children in Arkansas since 1894, and now the nonprofit organization is adding a foster care ministry.
ABCHomes, which is supported by churches and individuals, has several ministries throughout the state, including the Arkansas Baptist Boys Ranch in Harrison, Family Care Homes that assist unwed mothers and their children, and a home for abused and neglected children or those from troubled homes in Monticello. The organization also provides counseling services.
The new program is known as Connected and the goal is to get Baptist churches more involved in ministering to children in foster care, as well as to foster families and state workers involved in foster care.
The Connected program is starting as a pilot program in the North Pulaski Baptist Association. The Arkansas Baptist State Convention includes several associations of Southern Baptist churches grouped together by geographic location throughout the state. The North Pulaski Baptist Association includes churches in Maumelle, North Little Rock, Sherwood, Jacksonville and surrounding areas in the northern half of Pulaski County.
Derek Brown, Little Rock area director for ABCHomes, said the hope is to expand the program to other associations.
"We've been working with foster families a long time in different capacities ... but we've been seeing a growing need with the system as a whole," Brown said. "It's not just about getting more foster families, it's about improving the quality and the support."
The program's function will be to coordinate resources for the foster care community, including recruiting and training foster families.
Brown said hands-on support for families will be provided through churches within the North Pulaski Baptist Association. Church members will help in various ways, including preparing meals for foster families when a foster child arrives and offering help with babysitting and tutoring, respite care, transportation, school supplies and more. Churches will also offer encouragement to workers with the Arkansas Department of Human Services' Division of Children and Family Services, as well as help for birth families.
"While many resources are available through Arkansas ministries to foster families, our state currently lacks a system for the coordination of resources," Brown said. "When the church plays a direct role in shaping the foster community through a vision of child welfare missions, a dramatic impact on the system can be expected. This impact includes increased longevity, decreased family stress and reduction of failed placements."
Brown said the community structure of Southern Baptist associations seemed to be perfect for providing support to foster families.
Citing the agency's statistics, Brown said the need for foster families is great.
"In our state, on any given day, there are between 4,000 and 4,500 foster kids and less than 2,000 foster homes," he said. "So the need is huge."
He referenced Jeremiah 29:13 when saying that churches should get involved in helping foster children and families: "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."
"If we're going to look for God, we've got to look where his heart is and everything in Scripture tells us this is where God's heart is," Brown said.
Information is available online at abchomes.org.
Religion on 07/04/2015