|
May is Foster Care Awareness Month
Every day, children are removed from their home due to abuse or neglect, through no fault of their own. May is the month to acknowledge foster parents, family members, volunteers, mentors, policymakers, child welfare professionals, and other members of the foster care community who help children and youth find permanent homes and families.
Fostering is not a new concept. Throughout history, there have been circumstances when children would be reared by someone other than their biological parents. This was an especially common practice during times of war or plagues. In the mid-19th century, the United States started the foster care system to move children out of orphanages and off the streets of New York and into Midwestern homes where they could experience a healthy childhood.
Today, the word fostering is often associated with children who were abandoned, neglected or abused by their biological families and cast into a government run system. A negative connotation is often ascribed to the system and to these children, who were removed through no fault of their own.
In Los Angeles County, there are nearly 28,000 children in the foster care system. Without caring and supportive families, children aging out of the foster care system can end up homeless, incarcerated, trafficked, in poverty or face early parenthood. These children were meant to be raised by dedicated and loving parents, not by a system.
The Los Angeles Archdiocese Office of Life, Justice and Peace believes that, with the love of a family to support and nurture foster children to their full potential, these children can lead happy, healthy, and productive lives. For this reason, they promote foster care and adoption. See their webpage at https://lifejusticeandpeace.lacatholics.org/foster. Here are some ways we can help:
If you are a Family
-
Become a Foster Family: Is your family called to be a foster family to children in need? Perhaps you have questions: How long is the process? Is there compensation? Do you need to own a house? Foster All, https://fosterall.org/, can answer your questions and help find the best foster family agency for your family. FosterAll recruits prospective resource/foster parents from faith communities and provides ongoing support to these families so that they can provide safe and loving homes for the thousands of children who have been abused and neglected.
-
Support other families who are fostering: Your family can be a resource family to other families who are fostering by:
- Praying for the health and well-being of foster parents
- Providing home cooked meals for foster families
- Sponsoring a movie night or family outing for a foster family
-
Volunteer as a family with one of the organizations who serve foster children:
-
https://lifejusticeandpeace.lacatholics.org/foster-care-adoption-organizations
If you are an Individual
Children witness the love of Christ alive and present in the arms of a family. Our Catholic Communities - parishes, schools, families and individuals - can all do our part to help children in foster care. There is something for everyone!
God our loving Father,
Inspire us with the fervor of your love
to welcome children in need into our homes:
those in foster care, those in need of adoptive parents,
and those who need a loving home while their broken families heal.
St. Joseph, foster father of Jesus, and St. Jerome Emiliani,
patron of abandoned and orphaned children,
Pray for us!
~St. Luke Life, Justice and Peace Ministry
| 
