Workshop: Building Sustainable Support Groups

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LUNCH & FREE CHILD CARE INCLUDED!

Register Here

 

Foster Families Need To Know Their Church Is Behind Them

That's why we're offering this 1-day workshop to equip churches and individuals to build sustainable support groups. 

If you want to learn how to support the foster & adoptive families in and outside your church, this workshop is for you. Whether you lead a group, a ministry, or a church or are interested in starting a new group, you will learn valuable insights about 

Recruiting Leadership  Preparing for Growth Group Management  Empowering Parents

• Funding Your Group 
• Preventing Burnout 
• Topics for Discussion 
• Organizing Volunteers

Safe Families Volunteer Training Day at Willow Creek

Safe Families for Children and Willow Creek Community Church Present:

The Greater Chicago Volunteer Training Day

Saturday, July 18, 2015

Prospective Safe Families, you're invited to a live, accelerated Comprehensive Training Session. 

Offered as an alternative to online training, this event is designed to equip you to welcome a child into your home (Host Family) or support a host or placing parent (Family Friend) and move you through the training process efficiently. The live Comprehensive Training Session includes everything you need to become a certified Safe Family Volunteer—all in one place. 

• Start or submit your application
• Get fingerprints taken for the background check
• Complete your training hours
• Meet like-minded families who will support you

The training will be in two parts.  The first two hours will be for all volunteers.  The second two hours will be for Host Families.  So, anyone interested in being a Family Friend only needs to stay for the first two hours.  Host Families need to stay for the whole training.

Doors open at 8:30 AM for those who need to start an application, schedule a home study, start a background check, or ask one-on-one questions.  The training session begins at 9:00 AM sharp.  The training will be held at the So. Barrington Campus in room B207.

A light breakfast and lunch will be provided. There will also be a variety of special giveaways throughout the training session you won't want to miss!

Free Parking is available.  

REGISTER HERE

Reserve your spot today! We look forward to seeing you on July 18th to equip and encourage you in your journey.

If you have further questions please contact Sarah Mohr, 773-653-2222, or smohr@safefamilies.net

Have questions about Live Host Family Training Day - Willow Creek Community Church? Contact the organizer

Support Indigenous Adoption in Ukraine

"God bless every family who desires to adopt. It's an amazing ministry to children!"
-Slavic & Natasha, adoptive parents from Ukraine


Slavic & Natasha | An Adoption Story from Ukraine from Lifesong for Orphans on Vimeo.

Slavic & Natasha adopted their daughter shortly before her 13th birthday. When they arrived home, they asked her what she wanted for her birthday. Her answer? "I have the biggest gift of all. I have a mama and a papa!" 

Alex & Tatiana's family

Alex & Tatiana adopted 2 boys from their local orphanage in 2009. In 2012 they adopted 3 girls with special needs. In April of this year they began the process to adopt 2 more boys.

 
"We totally understand the nature of the challenges ahead of us, but we need the Lord's mercy and support of our brothers and sisters along the way. Thank you for being the hands and feet of the Lord in supporting our journey.

This path is beyond our physical abilities but with God all things are possible."

Slavic & Natasha and Alex & Tatiana represent a growing number of families in Ukraine who are sensing the need and obeying the call of God on their lives to adopt.

Adoption Without Borders is an intentional program linking like-minded families and churches in the USA with Christian families in the Ukraine who are seeking to adopt. People from the USA with a heart for orphan care support families in Ukraine to adopt children from the Ukraine.

The system is already in place and working well. For over 7 years, the Lifesong Ukraine team has assisted couples in adopting (or life-long fostering) over 160 orphans. Excellent pre- and post-adoption training and support is in place and positive relationships with state-run orphanages, local government, district courts, and local churches in the Izume, Kharkov, and Zap regions of Ukraine are well established.

The goal of indigenous adoption in Ukraine is not only to recruit Christian families who God is calling to adopt, but to equip them as well. In many cases, Christians are able to equip Christians in other countries to adopt with fewer hurdles than Christians are able to internationally adopt.

"Love and care provided in a family surpasses it all. The biggest need of a child is to have a loving family." -- Slavic & Natasha

Please join us in praying for Adoption Without Borders and all the families like Slavic & Natasha and Alex & Tatiana in Ukraine and around the world who are working together to make this amazing partnership possible.

www.lifesongfororphans.org

Learn more about indigenous adoption in Ukraine

Connecting Healthy Timing & Spacing of Pregnancies & Orphans in the Devoloping Countries

(Photo: Reuters/Tim Shaffer)

 

 

By Jenny Eaton Dyer, PhD and Jedd Medefind , 

CP Guest Contributors

Christian Post
June 11, 2015

Those of us who care deeply about human needs often speak as if the one issue we're most passionate about stands alone: hunger, AIDS, poverty, governance, trafficking. We have fallen into that trap at times, too. But here's a vital truth we can't ignore: just beneath the surface, pressing human needs are intertwined. So any aid or development effort that fails to reflect this truth will most always fall flat.

Let's make this personal. Jedd Medefind leads the Christian Alliance for Orphans, working to see orphaned and vulnerable children well cared for around the globe, and Jenny Dyer directs the Faith-Based Coalition for Healthy Mothers and Children Worldwide and Senator Bill Frist, MD's Hope Through Healing Hands, which seeks to empower women in the developing world to better time and space their pregnancies.

Many would see these as widely differing undertakings. That couldn't be further from the truth.
Let's start with this question: "What causes a child to end up an orphan in the first place?" Of course, there are myriad roots to what UNICEF has called the "global orphan crisis" – from disease and disaster, to abuse by parents, to adults feeling forced by poverty to abandon their children. These vexing problems defy simple solutions, so caring for orphaned children will likely remain an immense need for decades to come.

But it is also clear that if these causal factors can be reduced, the number of future orphans can be significantly decreased. Consider the fact that pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death for girls age 15-19 worldwide. Yet even small cultural shifts can alter this reality.

For example, the average age of marriage in Ethiopia is 16. Becoming pregnant between ages 15-19 creates twice the risk of death to a mother as becoming pregnant between 20-24. Likewise, if a mother becomes pregnant within two years of her previous delivery, she is more likely to die or have a miscarriage. Simply delaying pregnancy until age 20, and spacing pregnancies to two or more years apart, can greatly decrease maternal deaths.

Read more  HERE  

Learn How You Can Support Foster Families

 

Everyone Matters!

When a family welcomes a child from foster care, family dynamics undergo enormous changes.

The new family member often arrives with many new time-consuming events such as caseworker meetings, biological family visits, dentist and doctor appointments, and evaluations with mental health providers and therapists.  All of this time focused on a single child may leave other children in the family feeling left out and unimportant.

In order to create a united, thriving family, parents need to ensure each family member feels heard and cared for; that everyone in the family has a voice. With a little extra effort and help from support team members, foster parents can give voice and needed attention to all family members.

 

Ways to Support Individual Connection   Support team members can give parents the time and space to connect with each child individually by: Deliver meals to the family you’re supporting so they can spend meal-prep time with an individual family member. Volunteer to spend extra time with the other children. Take them out for a treat, drive them to after-school activities or help with homework one night each week. Build a special connection with one child, be proactive about checking in and find out how that child is adjusting to the changes within their family. Spend time with the child in foster care in order to give the rest of the family time together to assess and openly share about transition challenges. Offer to pick up all the children and take them swimming at your neighborhood pool so parents can have time to work on their relationship.   Learn More Ways to Support A Family in "The Guide" View Past Support Team Newsletters

Alliance Advocacy for Foster Care

 

Alliance Advocacy is an innovative approach 

to foster care and advocacy

You are cordially invited to celebrate the opening of Alliance Advocacy by attending an Open House

June 25, 2015
12-3 PM
RSVP by June 17th
773-558-2863
or
Allianceadvocacy@gmail.com

We, at Alliance Advocacy feel that you are uniquely qualified to recognize the critical nature of the services we offer. Alliance Advocacy is a not-for-profit organization that is committed to working with children in foster care and shelters by providing avenues that will enhance their quality of life.

We would like to take the opportunity to share our vision with you while showcasing the many different aspects of our program.

Light refreshments will be served.