TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Board of Trustees of the Florida Baptist Children’s Homes unanimously approved the development of a new program called Safe Families, which will be designed to reach and care for more children and families experiencing a crisis.
The goal of the Safe Families program is to provide short term childcare support in order to help prevent family crises from escalating to the point where law enforcement and the state must come in and take custody of the children.
“Everyone knows that there are many families struggling right now, which is why we have been challenging ourselves to come up with a way to reach more children and families in crisis,” said Charlie Cox, vice president of programs for the Children’s Homes.
“Our goal is to help keep families together by providing temporary childcare assistance while the parents take the necessary time to address their individual crisis situations. The children may need care for just a night or two, but it could also be as long as a year depending on the situation. However, we would expect that the average length of stay would be around 45 days.”
Cox explained that the program will be administered by the local church, which he described as being best equipped to be the hands and feet of Christ in their community.
“We will come alongside the church to provide the structure, training, and support to enable them to run a successful Safe Families program.”
Cox said that the Safe Families program will be comprised of a network of volunteer Christian families who will take in children from parents that may be temporarily unable to properly care for their children for a variety of reasons such as hospitalization, homelessness, drug abuse, or when a parent is remanded to a correctional institution for a period of time.
“Parents place their children voluntarily and temporarily with a Safe Family so they can have the time needed to address crisis issues without fear of losing custody. As a result many Safe Families become the extended family to a parent that is experiencing a crisis and needs help,” Cox said.
Cox explained that Safe Families is different from foster care in that it does not require involvement with the Florida Department of Children and Families, which is the state child welfare department. With Safe Families the parents suffering from a crisis situation would voluntarily place their children with a Safe Families home and continue to maintain custody.
Dr. Jerry Haag, president of the Children’s Homes explained that the lack of extended families has caused many to become socially isolated and often have no one to turn to while experiencing difficult circumstances.
“In the past extended families were able to support parents experiencing a crisis by stepping in and helping to care for the children. Those support networks just don’t exist in our society to the extent that they used to,” Haag said.
“We will be working with churches to help them set up Safe Family programs. This is an excellent program for churches wanting to be more intentional about impacting their community by serving children and families in need. It is also a great opportunity for Christian volunteer families to show the love of Christ to them.”
Haag also explained that people will be able to be involved with the Safe Families program in many different ways other than providing long term childcare. He said that they will be able to help by providing meals to a family, doing car repairs and other work projects for a single mother, or providing care for children for a day for a parent needing a respite or time to meet other demands.
Florida’s Chief Child Advocate Jim Kallinger, appointed by Governor Charlie Crist, also realizes the benefit of the Safe Families program.
“I am grateful to see the Florida Baptist Children’s Homes continue their leadership in serving our children and families in crisis. Their church-based Safe Families program has the potential to meet the needs of struggling families by engaging friends and neighbors in the community. This localized approach will most likely help to prevent child maltreatment without placing an extra burden on the tax payer,” Kallinger said.
The new program will be piloted in the Jacksonville and Miami areas with plans to eventually go statewide. For more information about the Safe Families program contact the Florida Baptist Children’s Homes at 863-687-8811 or online at www.FBCHomes.org.
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