January Meeting Notes

Faith Communities Coalition Meeting – January 23, 2012

Attendees:  Ginelle Barry (Foster Hope), Shelly Hampton (WHS), Elgie Bright (Foster Hope), Pamela Talbot (MCHS), Ruth McGinnis, Frederick Jones (MAFAK), Odette Jones (MAFAK), Brenda Calderon (SPTC), Janice Mechan (The River), Kim LeFear (DHS), Paula Jenkinson (Central Church of the Nazarene), Cheryl Sibilisky (LSSM), Dorothea Weist (First Baptist of Davison), Kim Stribling (DHS)

Opening prayer and text: James 1:2-4

In October 2011, Foster Hope conducted a focus group with local foster agencies.  Throughout the discussion, two needs continued to rise to the top of the discussion – the need for more foster parents and the need for better training for foster parents.

The goal of this evening was to discuss how the faith community and local agencies, specifically the Mid-Michigan Faith Communities Coalition, could work together to begin brining change to these two areas of need.

-          What causes there to be a lack of foster homes?

• Fear of: failure, unknown issues, safety, loss, commitment, losing lifestyle, extended family receptiveness, influence on other children in home, loss of privacy and control over personal life
• Lack of finances, personal and faith community
• Poor communication of problem to the faith community and the population in general
• Bad PR
• Doubt that fostering makes a real difference or that even small efforts can make a large impact
• Faith community and general population lack knowledge about the needs (partially due to confidentiality)
• Lengthy/extensive licensing process
• Lack of support for current foster parents (reducing their ability to share that fostering in a positive experience)
• Lack of information/resources available to case workers and foster parents,  which affects the success of cases (reducing their ability to share that fostering in a positive experience)

-          Who does this issue (a lack of foster homes) affect?

• Kids: instability, placed in homes that are not good matches (causing multiple re-placements), stuck in residential, foster parents are not trained to handle
• Current foster parents: maxed out, no respite, lack of training
• Agencies:  stressed, overburdened
• Schools: behavioral burdens from unstable kids, multiple transfers
• Community: law enforcement, medical community, tax base, safety
• Biological Parent
• Relatives of child

-          Who has the power to change the issue (lack of foster homes)?

• All of the above

-          If we summarized the above discussion: The faith community and general community do not have enough knowledge about foster care, and the needs there in.  There is also a great need for increased support and shared resources for foster children and their families.  If these two areas were addressed, the ability to recruit more foster homes would greatly increase.

-          WHAT can we, as the Mid-Michigan Faith Communities Coalition, do to address the need for more knowledge?

• Make the community aware of specific needs:  material needs, prayer, permanent court wards needing homes
• Create a fact sheet with data, personal stories and to dispel fears
• Get MYOI magazines inside of churches for distribution
• Create opportunities (events/celebrations/videos) for success stories of foster families, foster youth and biological families to be told.  (suggestions: churches celebrate foster families in May, MYOI block party, resource fair, adoption/foster event)
• Participate in other community events (suggestions: women’s expo, mom to mom sales, speak at church dinners or small group events)
• Solicit churches to host trainings, and encourage that church to wrap around/support the foster families that attended.  Also, use as recruitment tool.

Next Meeting:

-          Monday, February 27^th 6-8pm

-          Each person invite one more person: church representative, foster parent, agency member, foster youth, biological parent

-          Next Steps:  Creating an action plan for a minimum of one of the above items

Faith Communities Coalition

The Mid-Michigan Faith Communities Coalition is an expansion of a quickly growing Faith Communities Coalition that began in Oakland County almost two years ago.  The purpose of our region’s coalition is to give churches, foster agencies, foster parents and the community at large an opportunity to develop and implement tangible ways that the faith community and foster system can work together to  better serve foster children and their families.

Please join us for our next meeting on Monday, April 23rd 6-8pm at the beautiful Ichthus Estate 3340 Parkside, Flint