Here are current needs to help foster care children:
Project Care Case is always looking for donations of suitcases, clothing, pillows, Bibles, etc. Click on their link to learn more.
Start Praying! Is God asking you to foster a child? Provide respite care (people are needed to even be babysitters for foster families!). Adopt a waiting child?
Support those who are in direct contact with the children. A meal, an extra set of hands, a compassionate, listening ear is so very welcomed by foster families. FIND A FOSTER FAMILY and ask them "HOW CAN I SERVE YOU?"
Ways to Care for the Foster Child in Austin, Texas:
1. Pray for them. Plead with the Father on the behalf of the orphans in our world. Ask God to keep them safe, protect them, defend them and provide for them. Print out a picture of waiting child in the foster care system in Texas and pray for the child by name. Pray for God to bring them a Christian family to love them and care for them. To see pictures of children waiting for adoption in Central Texas, visit the Heart Gallery at www.heartgallerytexas.com/portraits. Form a prayer team and meet weekly or monthly to continue praying for these children.
2. Provide for their tangible needs. Contact a local emergency children’s shelter, a residential treatment facility, foster care agency, or Child Protective Services to inquire about what materials and resources vulnerable, abused and waiting children in Austin need. They often need mentors willing to invest in their lives, extra funds so they can attend camp and participate in extracurricular activities such as band or sports, or help understanding finances and looking for a part-time job if they are a teenager. Find out what the need is and then either provide it or find someone who can donate what is needed. Keep checking in on the child to make sure his/her needs continue to be met. To get started, you can contact any of the foster care agencies listed in this folder.
3. Speak up for them. Become a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for a child in the foster care system. CASA’s spend time getting to know a child in foster care and then speak to the court on their behalf so judges make decisions that are in the best interest of the child. To learn more visit www.casatravis.org or www.nationalcasa.org. Another option is to help raise public awareness about the needs of children in foster care and their foster families. Volunteer with the Texas Dept. of Family and Protective Services in their Speaker’s Bureau to talk to community groups, churches and organizations on behalf of children in foster families. To volunteer, go to www.dfps.state.tx.us/volunteer/. Help recruit high quality foster/adoptive families. Learn about the signs of physical and sexual abuse in children and how to prevent it. Speak out against child abuse and help educate the public on how to spot it and report it so that a child is removed from harm and is safe. To learn more go to www.taasa.org/ and www.dfps.state.tx.us/itsuptoyou/recognize.asp.4. Go visit them. Become a volunteer at one of the local children’s emergency shelters, children’s homes or transitional living units for teens aging out of foster care. Become a reliable volunteer who is willing to invest in the life of at least one child over a sustained period of time. Show the children or teenagers that you work with that they are not forgotten and that they are loved by a mighty and gracious God. Contact the Austin Children’s Shelter (www.austinchildrenshelter.org), Lifeworks (www.lifeworksaustin.org), STARRY (www.starryonline.org), Texas Baptist Children’s Home (www.tbch.org), Helping Hand Home (www.helpinghandhome.org), The Settlement Home (www.settlementhome.org) or Angelheart (www.angelheartshelter.com) to learn how to become a volunteer.
5. Support those who support them. Provide help and support for families who foster and adopt, especially in the critical months when they first bring their child back home to Austin. Throw them a baby shower or “welcome BBQ” (especially important when older children are adopted), clean their house, do their laundry, go grocery shopping or run other errands for them, etc. Give them time to focus on transitioning the new child into their family without having to worry about the daily chores that need to be done. Become a licensed respite provider or babysitter so you can help out families who are fostering a child. Or, sponsor a local child welfare social worker. Pray for them, take them to lunch or send them notes of encouragement.
6. Help fund adoptions. Support orphan care and foster care organizations with your financial resources. Give financially to families in the process of adopting, or give money to provide financial assistance to foster or adoptive families. Hold a yard sale, bake sale or craft sale and donate the proceeds to a family that has recently brought home a new child or sibling group. Start an adoption fund at your church. To learn how, go to www.abbafund.org.
7. Cheer them on as they “age out” of the system. Over 20,000 children a year “age out” of the U.S. foster care system with no place to call home and no one to provide support for them. They need help learning basic life skills, setting up housing, applying to college, finding a job, and just having someone to call for advice and somewhere to go during the holidays. Call your local foster care office, the Department of Family and Protective Services PAL Program (www.dfps.state.tx.us/volunteer/opportunities.asp) or an area organization that works with teens in foster care such as the Casey Foundation (www.casey.org), Austin Children’s Shelter (www.austinchildrenshelter.org) and Lifeworks (www.lifeworksaustin.org). Let them know you have the desire to be a support for a teenager who is aging out of foster care.
