Safe Families as an Alternative to Foster Care

Next month, Hillcrest is going to be exploring the feasibility of starting a Safe Families ministry- a couple of other churches have already started one and with good results.  You can learn more about Safe Families by clicking on this link but essentially, Safe Families looks to provide short term housing to children of under-resourced families.  These are children who don't need foster care (i.e. their parents aren't in prison, the children haven't been abused, etc) but who would otherwise end up in foster care without a Safe Family.  Perhaps a parent is jobless and now homeless or a parent might be entering treatment- situations where temporarily staying with a Safe Family is preferable to the wheels of the foster care system.

I am not sure what this will look like at Hillcrest but it is an interesting ministry concept.