Advocacy For Foster Children Grows From Possum Trot to Orange County

Bishop W.C. Martin, the man who led members of his small country church in Possom Trot, Texas, to collectively adopt 76 foster children, said he believes the Zero by 2020 initiative launched in Orange County, California, will lead to a national movement.Zero by 2020 is a collaborative initiative of Christian churches in Orange County with the goal of finding a family for every child in Orange County by 2020 and equip the church to support them.Bishop Martin recently told leaders of the initiative that he will do whatever it takes to help the movement grow.“I believe in my heart that what God did with us in Possum Trot is going to generate throughout this nation,” he said. “There’s no reason in the world that it shouldn’t. I believe 100 percent that God is going to move and take care of this particular problem because our children have suffered too long, our children have been through these hardships long enough. I believe they have a right to a better life than what they ever had before.”Bishop Martin, who describes himself as simply “an ol’ country boy,” gained national attention several years ago when he and his wife, Donna, led the congregation at Bennett Chapel Baptist Church to adopt 76 foster children from across Texas, many of whom had been abandoned or abused.“I never dreamed there were so many children in the system,” Bishop Martin told People Magazine in 2012. “We’re just a little church. But this problem is all of ours.”Officials within several Orange County agencies have also captured the vision and are already working with churches to help accomplish the initiative’s goal.Olive Crest, which is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping abused and neglected children, is also a leading agency in the effort.“It’s really exciting to see how churches are coming together on behalf of children,” said Wendy McMahan, who is Olive Crest’s Director of Foster, Adoptions, and Kinship. “There’s an awakening taking place right now among the Church, with so many ministry leaders who are answering the call by stepping up to find families for children waiting in foster care.”Olive Crest is focused on strong families and safe kids, McMahan said.“We want to help families discover the right fit for them, whether it’s fostering, adopting, or providing support to other families,” she explained. “We’ll train each family and walk with them each step of the way through placement and the fostering process. Some families will feel called into foster care and adoption, and we hope that others will answer the call to restore families through the Safe Families for Children program.”McMahan adds that Olive Crest feels honored to be partnering with so many Orange County churches to share the call toward finding families for children.Skip Lanfried, one of the organizers of Zero by 2020, said that the initiative is beyond the “vision stage” and now into the implementation phase.“Bishop Martin has walked this hard road already,” Lanfried said. “His small church of less than 200 people and 25 families said, ‘Yes, we will step into the pain and hardship of these kids in foster care and give them a family.’“As the result of the movement that happened in his church a miracle happened for 76 kids. These were children that experienced very traumatic childhoods. These were the most difficult kids to place in the foster care system in Texas and his church was willing to step in on their behalf, step in the gap, and provide family.”Lanfried is encouraging everyone that is interested in the Zero by 2020 initiative to attend the Next Step Gathering to be held at Friends Church in Yorba Linda on April 14. Bishop Martin will be at the event, scheduled to speak during a training session.“We believe that Orange County has kids that have experienced difficulty being placed with families,” Lanfried said. “At this event coming up, we’re going to be hearing from Bishop Martin firsthand, who along with his church have succeeded in overcoming this problem.”For more information, including registration, for the Next Step Gathering, go to the event page here:Http://NextStepGathering.eventbrite.comPREVIOUS ARTICLES: ZERO BY 2020

2020 Vision: What Does 'Getting to Zero' Mean?

What does “Getting to Zero” mean? Getting to Zero is the idea that we want to see zero children waiting for families here in our community — zero kids having to go to bed each night still praying for a mom and dad.No child should be left to wonder whether they are worthy of love.An ambitious plan to eliminate the number of vulnerable children without a caring family in Orange County by 2020 using a church-to-church partnership with the county was launched earlier this year.While this sounds like an outrageous goal, we’ve already seen the miraculous happen! The country of Rwanda has already modeled what Getting to Zero can look like, when they made the bold decision to close all their orphanages and get over 3,000 children into family care through the help of the local churches. Looking at their amazing progress – and the remaining challenges – helps paint a picture of what this vision could mean for Orange County.Now, five years into the work of Getting to Zero the country of Rwanda is approaching its goal of closing all orphanages throughout the country as children are being placed in families out of the orphanage or reunited with their families. Despite this progress, in some orphanages children remain waiting to receive a family – either because finding a willing family is a challenge or often times, there are orphans ages 18 and older who grew up in the orphanage, never learned life skills to survive on their own, and therefore feel unable to leave the orphanage setting. What does all this mean for the work of “Getting to Zero”? Even when orphanages have closed, the task of caring for vulnerable and orphaned children is far from done.The work of the Orphan Care Initiative goes far beyond simply “closing orphanages.” The tools and training we provide through the work of the local churches in Rwanda is developing a child welfare system for a country that will ensure that no children grow up outside of family care. If you take the case of the United States, we have no orphanages – in their place we have a system for identifying vulnerable and parentless children, sourcing families to foster and adopt them, and training and monitoring those families so that they are successful. If you look at Rwanda through that view, the work has only begun. There is now a stellar example in Western Rwanda – where the Orphan Care Initiative has focused our efforts at the request of the government – of what it looks like to reintegrate children into families well with the wrap around support of the church.However, much of the rest of the nation returned children to families without the wrap-around support of the churches, which is so critical to the long-term success of an orphanage-free child welfare system. Our most recent Orphan Care PEACE trip saw this firsthand as they conducted trainings in Kimonyi, an example of an area where the orphanage recently closed but families had never received any information on how to address the trauma their children have experienced in the institution. When the government realized these families were struggling, they specifically asked for the Orphan Care Initiative to intervene with training and support.Getting a child out of an orphanage and into a family is only the start of the journey of helping that child and family succeed long term. In that way, future Orphan Care PEACE teams remain critical to delivering several important, world-view shifting messages:1) The value and need for adoption in a culture coming out of dependence on orphanages.2) Teaching churches how to deliver the evidence-based adoptive parent training that allows families to help heal hurts of children who have come from the orphanage and other hard places.3) The truth that EVERYONE in the church is called to care for the orphan, and the church can help members get on mission in this area in a variety of ways.The Rwanda Orphan Sponsorship is a piece of this support system designed to help children remain in, reunite with or regain family through adoption. Families brought into the sponsorship program receive support to help care for their child in the form of a monthly amount from their local church. As part of sponsorship, parents become part of a savings group to learn how to grow and manage their money, and they receive lay social work support from the church and agree to attend parenting training. In return, the families agree to use the funds to pay their child’s school fees, enroll them in medical insurance and tithe back to their local church. Because these funds go directly to the family from their local church, many families receiving sponsorship don’t know there is a Western donor on the other end, they just see it as their local church coming alongside to support them.This post was originally published on the #ZEROby2020VISION site here.

Who Are The Key Players In The Lives Of Prisoners' Kids?

When teachers receive their roster each school year, they are handed more than a list of names—they receive an opportunity to invest in lives.

By Bethany McIlrath

It's likely that some of these lives are impacted by crime and incarceration. 2.7 million children in the United States have a parent behind bars.Teachers and school administrators play a significant role in creating a positive or negative experience for all of their students, but particularly those who come from more vulnerable backgrounds.Several strategies can help educators support prisoners' children in school:

TREAT STUDENTS AS INDIVIDUALS, NOT PRODUCTS

As an article in Education Week points out, students who have an incarcerated parent are statistically more likely to be incarcerated themselves one day. Students with incarcerated parents are often and unfortunately stigmatized as criminals (or on the path to becoming one) themselves. Sadly, bullying is common for children who have a parent in prison. Teachers should be on the lookout for this behavior and intervene.Other ways that educators can come alongside students with a parent in prison are highlighted by Project Avary, a program that supports children of prisoners:

• Addressing students' feelings about incarceration without focusing on the crimes of the parent
• Offering one-on-one attention and validation
• Praising and helping students grow in their talents and natural positive qualities
• Collaborating with caregivers positively to support students
• Avoiding generalizations that highlight the student's challenging situation

VALIDATE AND ENCOURAGE EMOTIONAL PROCESSING

Most children react with strong emotions to the incarceration of a parent. The emotions can be confusing, especially for younger children. Youth.gov explains that having a parent incarcerated is classified as an "adverse childhood experience" (ACE), just as abuse and other traumatic experiences are.School staff can help students with incarcerated parents by encouraging them to express their emotions in healthy ways. Behaviors should be corrected, but emotions should't be punished. Validating that a student has a right to experience their own feelings and develop their own opinions can help students take personal responsibility while also healing from the trauma.

MAINTAIN EXPECTATIONS WITH GRACIOUS FLEXIBILITY

School psychologist Eric Rossen outlines several elements of supporting students with incarcerated parents. One is that students need to be given flexibility without lowering expectations. He explains that teacher expectations influence student performance.When teachers maintain high expectations, students are challenged in a positive way to live up to these expectations. Due to lifestyle changes and hardship that may affect students' ability to focus or complete homework as quickly, some flexibility, such as extra academic support or understanding of the emotions behind a problematic behavior, is also important.ENCOURAGE PARTICIPATION IN ACTIVITIESSince the incarceration of a parent can be isolating for a child and negatively affect a student's social relationships, educators can support students by encouraging participation in extracurricular activities. Before- and after- school activities give students:

• Personal interaction with adults and mentors
• Something in common to share with peers
• A space to relax and develop skills they desire
• Oversight that may be lacking at home during those hours

Students often benefit from involvement in activities and events outside of school as well. For instance, children with incarcerated parents may be especially blessed by attending summer camp such as Angel Tree Camping®. Educators can discover opportunities like these and share them with students. Some even choose to use their skills in education to support students at camps throughout the summer.RECOGNIZE THE ROLE OF EDUCATIONOne of the main reasons that an educator has an amplified effect on the lives of students with incarcerated parents is because these children often face a variety of significant obstacles. They lack not only the presence of a parent, but also may face instability at home, financial insecurity, little oversight or structure outside of school, inconsistency, and much more.For many students living with challenges like the incarceration of a parent, school is one of the only places that is stable and consistent. Educators have the opportunity to make that inherent structure safe and positive so that children who may not have support elsewhere have the opportunity to shape their lives for good.An important note: Children may not be aware that their parent is in prison. If a caregiver discloses this information, the educator should hold that information in confidence unless given permission to share it.ABOUT BETHANYA learner at heart, Bethany McIlrath loves to share about her Savior and ways to lovingly serve others whom God has so loved. You can find Bethany's writing on her blog: FirstandSecondBlog.com. She is a guest blogger for Prison Fellowship®.This article was originally published on the Prison Fellowship website and republished with permission.

Child Service Agencies and Churches Unite to Find a Family For Every Child in OC

ANAHEIM, Calif. — An ambitious plan to eliminate the number of vulnerable children without a caring family in Orange County by 2020 using a church-to-church partnership with the county was presented at Vision Night For OC earlier this week.More than 100 people, some representing more than 30 churches, met to discuss the best ways to activate the plan, one that was successfully implemented in the entire nation of Rwanda, organizers said. The presentation of the initiative to help vulnerable children was held at Saddleback Church Anaheim on Tuesday and included six representatives of different areas of child care within the County of Orange program.“Find a family for every child in OC by 2020 and equip the Church to care for them,” Max McGhee, who is a pastor within the Orphan Care ministry at Saddleback Church, said towards the end of the evening presentation. “It’s that simple,” he said, as he pointed to the initiative’s goal projected on a screen which included “#ZEROby2020.”Michael Donaldson, who is the Director of Pastoral Care for Families at the Diocese of Orange, has committed to being a big part of the “Zero by 2020 Vision.” He said, “Whether people become resource families, organize fellowships or form opportunities for families, or even create prayer chains, each of us can make a difference in the lives of children needing a family of their own.”Scott Burdick, MFT Deputy DirectorDepartment of Children and Family Services, said that the county’s child welfare program recognizes the importance of partnering with churches and the initiative will help make vulnerable children and hurting families a “community issue.”“Churches have been such a foundational support to meet not just some of the physical needs but to meet some of the mentoring [needs],” said Burdick during a videotaped interview. “This has been something, that in my over 20 years with the county, that really has become such a passion: how we can begin to try to make this a community issue?”Child abuse is an innermost secret for families suffering from the problem, he said, and while they are in their most vulnerable moments it becomes “so important for these churches to really make connections with these families.”“It’s (the initiative) an amazing opportunity for us as a county and I really believe it’s an amazing opportunity for those churches and community members to really make a positive impact and to make a difference,” Burdick said. “If it’s just one life, it’s all worth it because it multiplies. Now we are looking at an opportunity to impact the county as a whole. My hope is that this is something that continues to grow and blossom, that it happens not just in Orange County, but Orange County becomes a model for us to do this across the state, across the country, and really, across the world.”Organizers said the “God-size goal” can be accomplished with the help of local government and a church-to-church strategy.“As long as just one vulnerable child is waiting for a loving family to take them home, we should not rest,” leaders behind the initiative said.To learn more, contact initiative leaders at 949.609.8555 or orphans@saddleback.com.