Lightening the load of the system and deflecting kids out of the foster care system, Safe Families for Children has been servicing Anoka Co. for the past seven years, and is today looking for more counties and churches to partner with to expand the organization into more communities.

 

Eighteen months ago, Lisa Welter, who had personally seen the need for its services, became the Minnesota director of the organization.

 

Previously, Welter had been a pastor at Eagle Brook Church in the Twin Cities, one of the largest churches in the nation. Overseeing Eagle Brook’s outreach efforts, she began to realize that although they had been doing things like food drives and weekend backpack programs for years their efforts didn’t seem to be helping and the need kept increasing.

 

“I thought we must be only hitting a symptom of something bigger,” she said. 

 

In the meantime, Anoka Co. foster care called and asked the church for help. Welter discovered the majority of people they were serving were youth currently in foster care or ones who had aged out of the system.

 

“I felt compelled to leave my position and find a solution,” she said. “This is what a church is supposed to do. We’re supposed to take care of the vulnerable.”

 

Feeling more churches would respond to the need if they were aware of it, Welter founded the Connected Kids Initiative to help with bringing faith communities across Minnesota to bring hope and change to the overwhelmed child welfare system.

 

Being named Minnesota director for Safe Families for Children in 2017 has helped her continue her mission.

 

Founded in 2003, Safe Families for Children is a volunteer-driven nonprofit that creates extended family-like supports for families in crisis to keep children safe and families intact through a community of devoted volunteers across the country.

 

After being approached by women in crisis looking for someone to watch their children, founder Dr. Dave Anderson, who had been running a foster care agency, realized children couldn’t be helped until they had actually been hurt. 

 

He learned most of the parents had no social networks they could go to for help and many of them had come from the foster care system themselves. What if the community would step up and help with early intervention? Safe Families for Children was born.

 

“The community has all the resources we need,” said Welter. “We just have to call on them. Local faith communities are where we recruit from. We’re a good bridge, hopefully deflecting families from the foster care system.”

 

Similar to foster care, unpaid host families offer a safe place for children to live without their parents losing custody of them. Families can reunite any time they want.

 

Along with host families, volunteers sign up to be family friends for encouragement and strength, family coaches to help parents get back on their feet, and resource friends, who provide items to families struggling with life’s challenges. All the volunteers work together to provide a circle of support.

 

The model has proven successful, with 93% of children returning to their homes after 45 average days of stay. Across the country there are 108 chapters that have provided over 35,000 hostings.

 

“We feel we’ve done a lot of the work that the Trump administration’s Family First Prevention Services Act is requiring states to do now.” said Welter. “This is the community doing this, doing work for the community good and everyone is benefitting. It’s the community’s problem, not the government’s problem.”

 

Welter is now leading an initiative to partner with the business community both financially and by asking them to partner with work force centers to help create a sustainable model.

 

For more information on Safe Families for Children, visit safe-families.org or call 888-290-7590.