There are just under 5,500 children in the Virginia foster care system. 550 of those children are in the metro Northern Virginia area. Children are designed to thrive in the context of family. Central to their core development is the need for love, connection, and belonging. In crisis, children become innocent victims and are stripped of those developmental needs. The long term effects are devastating. The statistics for people who are trafficked, incarcerated, and who don’t finish school, include a high percentage of people who’ve spent time in foster care.

God sets the lonely in families through His local church. Religion that is pure and unblemished is that which care for widows and orphans in their distress- James 1:27 The Church is uniquely position to respond to the foster care and orphan care crisis. The Church has the ability to provide more than enough:

*Homes and families

*Practical support

*Community

*Love and belonging

*Light in the Darkness

There are over 1,400 churches in the Northern Region of Virginia. Our goal is to encourage and equip 10% of those churches to actively seek to serve foster, adoptive, kinship and struggling biological families.

**We are engaging with churches to reach this goal in these cities and counties:**

* Arlington

* Alexandria

* Fairfax

* Loudoun

* Clarke

* Frederick

* Winchester

* Prince William

* Fredericksburg

* Spotsylvania

* Stafford

* King George

* Culpeper

Our Statement of Faith, Guiding Principles, and Core Commitments can be found here.