Why Fostering Matters

There’s a need in our area: families who can provide good, loving homes.

For the past few years, child welfare departments across our Northern region of Virginia have reported good numbers of foster families they could call upon for help. 

However, circumstances have recently changed.

After database cleanup efforts and reassessments with inactive families, several Departments of Social Services in our local counties are now expressing to us an urgent need for more foster families.

At Project Belong, we believe every child belongs in a family. Central to a child’s core development is to experience love, connection, and belonging in the context of family — and without it, children suffer.

If that is true, then great foster homes are extremely important, and their shortages are at the core of the foster care crisis.

Well-trained, loving foster parents help bring about the two primary goals of foster care: successful reunification with biological parents, or adoption if reunification is not possible.

And not only do we need enough foster families to ensure children don’t have to sleep at DSS offices, hospitals, or group homes when they don’t need to, but more families offer greater options and opportunities for a child’s success. 

By providing a pool of well-equipped, loving foster families, social workers go from making placement decisions simply based on “Is there an open bed?” to “Which home will be best for the child?”

With more families available for service:

• Siblings can stay together when appropriate;

• Stability can be achieved, avoiding the traumatic experience of bouncing from home to home;

• Foster parents are better matched for the child’s specific age range and needs;

• The foster home is close enough to allow existing positive family and community relationships to continue.

Recruiting and keeping excellent foster and kinship families may be the most important thing we can do for vulnerable children.

It can be a daunting step to take. And it’s not one we ask you to take lightly. But if you have even the slightest hint of interest, we encourage you to explore it.

Each county in Virginia may have its own process, but generally, if you care about children, are 18 or older, and are able to provide a safe, loving home, you can move forward. 

In fact, it sometimes shocks people to learn that you don’t have to own your home to foster. And you can foster no matter your marital status (single or married). These do not have to be barriers to playing your part in this!

We have several staff members who have fostered. They have experienced this process and are available to you to chat and answer any questions or concerns you have. Reach out to us.

As the Church, we should understand the impetus clearly. We have a God who sought to restore us to him and a Savior who humbled himself, even to death, to make that happen.  As his Church, we carry this mission too, of humbling ourselves to love vulnerable children. Our community has told us how its most vulnerable need help, and now we have an opportunity to respond!