State agency asks faith communities to help recruit foster parents

Pointing to a growing number of children in foster care and an urgent need for foster families, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services is calling on churches and communities of faith to respond. 

Faith-based recruiters with the state agency have led collaborative meetings and forums with foster care agencies and churches across the state of Texas.

“One of the things we really want to do in reference to the faith community is say we need your help in making sure that children and families feel supported,” Val Jackson, a faith-based specialist with Family and Protective Services, said at an event in Austin.

Collaborative meetings and recruiting events

Buckner Foster Care and Adoption has partnered with the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, other faith-based agencies and churches to engage Christians in answering this plea for help. 

Buckner participates in collaborative meetings and monthly recruiting events in nine markets across Texas—Amarillo, Beaumont, Conroe, Dallas, Longview, Lubbock, Lufkin, Midland and the Rio Grande Valley.

“Decades ago, we depended on the church to care for the hurting and hopeless,” said Samela Macon, Buckner’s senior director of domestic foster care and adoption. “We cannot forget that our children and their families still need us today.”

Multiple ways to support foster families

While foster families are in high demand, state workers and Buckner staff encourage Christians to support vulnerable children in foster care in multiple ways. 

Members of church communities can support families by providing respite care, supplying foster families with meals and clothes, or becoming a volunteer Court-Appointed Special Advocate. 

Churches also can help by hosting information meetings and by praying for children in the foster care system and for families who seek to meet their needs. 

“Social services offered through government services have made life better for many who are suffering, but the church ministers to more than physical needs. The church ministers to the spiritual and emotional needs,” Macon said. “We are actively engaged in kingdom work through our service to the most vulnerable.”