Safe Families for Children is a growing national movement of congregations and volunteers responding to families in crisis. Safe Families began on the West Side of Chicago in 2003 when Dr. David Anderson—who directs a private foster care agency called Lydia Home Society—had an idea. His staff was equipped to work with children after they were in the State child welfare system, but what if more could be done before families got to that point?
The Church has acted as a community safety net for hundreds of years. What if we could take the rigor and best practice of screening families for foster care and translate it to a preventative, volunteer context? As he later wrote, “When the early church was fully alive in engaging the culture and significantly impacting the “least of these,” the practice of offering care to strangers (hospitality) became a distinguishing characteristic.” One of the main referral reasons for Safe Families nationally is homelessness. We all know that it takes more than housing to create a sense of home. It takes belonging. It takes each of us.
In the summer of 2010, Olive Crest—the west coast partner organization within the Safe Families Alliance—began to meet with Pierce County congregations to discuss launching the model locally. Since then more than a dozen churches have signed on to form core teams. One local safe family from Our Savior’s Baptist, Patrick and Alicia Eskew, recently talked about how this experience has informed their faith journey: “Safe Families gave our family an opportunity to turn our ordinary lives - our home, our mealtime, our schedules - into an act of worship. By opening our home to children in need, our family has experienced the love of Christ in a meaningful way. We are confident that our own children are being made deeply aware of what it means to truly love our neighbors (Galations 5:14).”
