All in the Family

FROM EGG FREEZING to genome analysis, desirous parents with sufficient funds these days have many choices for starting a family. But what about children born to parents who can’t care for them—at least not at the present time? With 400,000 children in foster systems across the United States and a quarter of them awaiting adoption, it is a pressing question.

Some evangelicals increasingly are taking their cue from a particular biblical passage in the first chapter of James, verse 27: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God ... is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress ...”

From this verse has come the “127 movement,” dedicated to supporting prospective foster families within a church community. Project 1.27 in Colorado was the first group founded under this banner back in 2004. Its goal was to provide the state-mandated orientation and training, from a Christian perspective, to potential foster parents. If a family ended up fostering or later adopting a child, then the movement’s members would serve as a support network.

“We had 875 legally free kids waiting to be adopted in Colorado and twice that many churches,” recalled Project 1.27 director Shelly Radic. “We thought, ‘Wow, that’s just not right,’ so we began to build relationships with county social services and child services at the state level, and then connect with churches and private agencies to set up training.”

Since foster systems are run by individual states, so too are these faith-based support movements.

“We do recruiting, orientations, and training. We’re not a placement agency,” explained Radic. “We follow state guidelines, invite people to come who might be interested in foster care and adoption, tell them about the trauma and the hard things the children may have experienced, help families see what their process would look like, and talk about building a support team as a high priority.”

Even though Christians often use the phrase “orphan care” to describe these ministries, explained Chelsea Geyer, project coordinator of the newly formed Washington, D.C. 127 movement, “most of these kids have parents that they’re trying to get home to. They’re not ‘orphans’ in the technical sense.”

As such, DC127’s goal is to increase a child’s sense of community while lessening the number of times that child is bounced from family to family before going home or getting adopted.

WHILE FAMILY AND church foster or kinship care activities have been around for generations, the 127 movement was born out of a 2004 faith-based conference in Washington, D.C., sponsored by AdoptUSKids. First funded by the U.S. Children’s Bureau in 2002, AdoptUSKids has a dual mission: raise public awareness about the need for foster and adoptive families for children in the U.S., and assist states, territories, and tribes in their efforts to recruit and retain foster and adoptive families. Using its own Finding Common Ground guide as a base, AdoptUSKids provides technical assistance to public child welfare agencies to enhance their work with a wide array of faith-based foster and adoption movements, including 127, that are responding to the need for families to build relationships with children in foster care.

Kathy Ledesma, the national project director for AdoptUSKids, says it’s a very different kind of approach than you’d get with other programs.

Part of Ledesma’s job is to raise concerns and provide accountability for these same movements. In fact, she says the term “orphan” should be used with caution as it can create a stigma for children whose lives are already complicated.

“By and large, parental rights were terminated because of abuse or neglect, so in a sense these kids are social orphans, but again, that term should be used sparingly and with caution. We prefer to say ‘children who are waiting to be adopted,’” Ledesma said.

She also worries that would-be foster and adoptive parents sometimes come with unrealistic notions, thinking “love conquers all.”

“You need a whole lot of practical services—good mental health therapy and community support,” said Ledesma.

But 127 representatives say they are keenly aware of these concerns.

Orientations take place about twice a month. Those who are chosen as foster parents must attend a 12-hour training with several other families and with representatives from their own family or community. The goal of these trainings is to instill a sense of support and shared responsibility.

“We get into the nitty-gritty of how the system works, how to be certified, how to create a safe and loving environment that meets the needs of traumatized children, the boundaries and guidelines for disciplining kids, and how to manage family visits,” Shelly Radic said.

All foster programs require this kind of orientation and training, but leaders of 127 say faith-based support is a big value-added. Together, they will learn what makes foster parenting unique.

“I didn’t have as good of a support system as I should have,” said Radic, herself a former foster parent who adopted three of her foster children and saw a fourth through family reunification. Even with a strong faith and a supportive husband, Radic says she went through some rough patches where she thought she had completely failed. The worst came when her adopted son, then a teenager, developed behavioral problems that merited nine months of residential care for his own safety and that of the family.

“I think if I would have had more support from people who had experience with children in crisis, it would have been better,” Radic said.

Today, she encourages foster parents to be open about their vulnerabilities and to withhold judgment of other foster parents, even those who might decide to return a child to the system. This has only happened once in the history of Colorado’s Project 1.27, but there are plenty of other challenges.

For example, how do foster parents learn to let go when a child is able to reunite with his or her biological family?

“We really talk about the redemptive process of families coming back together in a safe and healthy place,” said Radic. “It’s all about the kid, about serving and loving that child, not about the need to have a child or be a parent. It’s about giving up your own certainty so that the child’s needs can be fulfilled.”

AS THE MOVEMENT continues to grow, so does the need for more families, especially ones who are highly adaptable to unique social circumstances. When Arizona 1.27 began in early 2013, the number of children in state care was 13,500. That number has since swelled to 15,000, but families are responding.

Approximately 1,800 people have gone through Arizona 1.27’s orientation, more than half indicated they were interested in the foster care licensing and adoption certification process, and at least 130 have moved forward with that process.

“The church is the greatest social change agent on earth, and God has made us that way,” said Arizona 1.27 project manager Danielle Bannister. “I love watching the church rise up and change the lives of kids and families in a positive way. You’re caring for the child, the caseworker, and the biological parent.”

A similar phenomenon happened in Washington, D.C., last year. In February 2013, The District Church pastors Aaron and Amy Graham wanted their nondenominational Christian congregation to consider ways to come alongside children in D.C.’s child welfare system. The Grahams had recently gone from fostering a child to adopting him, so they decided to host an informational meeting.

“We thought we’d get 30 people and 100 showed up. That was one-third of our church,” said newly formed DC127’s Chelsea Geyer. “It was very obvious this was something God was calling us to do.”

According to District child welfare officials, there are nearly 2,800 children in the D.C. system, with more than 1,250 in foster care and 290 who are waiting for adoption.

Last November, DC127 and the National Council for Adoption cohosted Foster the City, a one-day informational event where the public could learn more about fostering, adopting, and mentoring and supporting local disempowered youth. About 400 people, representing as many as 28 churches, attended.

IN A MULTIETHNIC society, adoption may also mean cultural adaptation. Historically, adoption “between races” has been fraught with struggle. In the 1970s and ’80s, leading African-American civil rights organizations maintained that in order to protect and preserve African-American families, black children should be placed with black families. The National Association of Black Social Workers went so far as to say “only a black family can transmit the emotional and sensitive subtleties of perception and reaction essential for a black child’s survival in a racist society.” In 1994, the Multiethnic Placement Act banned the practice of matching children and adoptive or foster families on the basis of race, and since then “transracial” adoptions have increased.

In 2012, 42 percent of the nation’s foster children were white, 26 percent were black, 21 were Latino (of any race), and 12 percent were multiracial or their heritage was unknown, according to the Child Welfare Information Gateway. In states such as Arizona and Colorado, the vast majority of adoptive parents are white—and they’re taking in kids of ethnicities other than their own. The 127 movements encourage members to take seriously cultural and ethnic distinctions. For example, some of the African-American women in 127 have organized skin and hair courses for white families fostering African-American children.

“It’s important to have a comfort level about the practicalities of life, and the church can provide a space where those questions can be asked and the support can be provided,” affirmed Rev. Derrick Harkins, senior pastor at Washington, D.C.’s Nineteenth Street Baptist Church, who has spent much of his career serving urban African-American communities.

That’s especially important in a place like D.C. Around 50 percent of the population is African American, and 96 percent of the city’s foster children are black. However, in the past few decades, the identities of the District’s foster parents have greatly diversified.

“Call me naïve, but I think multiracial contexts are far less unusual than they were 20 or 30 years ago,” Harkins said.

Mindy Good, communications director for Washington, D.C.’s Child and Family Services, couldn’t agree more. The District doesn’t discriminate against same-sex couples or single people who want to adopt, nor does it give higher priority to people with better economic means.

“We find that parents, good parents, come from a broad spectrum, and I also think that’s very reflective of the diversity and the openness of the District,” she said.

While Harkins would like to see more African Americans sign up for formal foster care services, he is proud of the ways black churches have spent generations coming alongside grandparents, aunts, uncles, and even neighbors who take it upon themselves to raise children who are at risk of becoming institutionalized.

“There has always been a larger sense of what comprises family,” he said.

DC127’s Chelsea Geyer feels a special obligation to honor that tradition. “We have a lot to learn from them,” said Geyer. “We’re the ones late to the game.”

Additionally, DC127 hopes to help kinship caregivers or extended family weigh their financial and legal options and obligations. Foster care comes with a lot of red tape, but it can also provide much-needed financial assistance.

Mindy Good is excited to see DC127 bolster community support for the local foster care program. She also noted that the D.C. Council has a unique grandparent caregiver subsidy program called Kin First aimed at giving local dollars to low-income individuals who are raising children from their extended family on their own.

EVEN IF AN individual is not in a position to foster or adopt a child, the leaders of these movements stress that there are plenty of other ways to be supportive, such as donating clothes, babysitting, bringing meals, or mentoring.

“Many people in their lives are getting paid to be there, and just like any kid, they need a mentor or adult who isn’t their parent,” said Chelsea Geyer.

Geyer should know. Her biological parents fostered and adopted two children while raising her. Her siblings remain close to the family, but she knows many foster kids aren’t so fortunate.

In fact, one of her biggest concerns is what will happen to the tens of thousands of young people who age out of the system without the support of family or a social network.

“It costs the government $8 billion in social services because they don’t have access to a family,” she said, noting that foster children experience higher than average rates of incarceration and homelessness, rarely attend college, and often have children of their own who end up in the foster system.

These expenses cost taxpayers and communities some $300,000 in public assistance, incarceration, and lost wages over that person’s lifetime, according to a study by the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative, a nationwide program aimed at improving this outcome for foster children transitioning into adulthood.

In a few months, 20-year-old Dayar Brown will be aging out of D.C.’s foster system. Despite spending most of his life moving around 20 different foster homes, he told participants at the Foster the City conference last November that community support was helping him beat the odds.

Thanks to D.C.’s Family and Youth Initiative, a community outreach program that predates DC127, Brown has finally found a permanent family—and it was a surprising match to some people. Brown, an African-American young man, said that he’s about to be legally adopted by his latest foster caregiver, Leah Gurowitz, a 53-year-old single white woman.

“She started out as my mentor and that relationship bloomed into what it is now. She teaches me how to manage my finances, how to save money,” said Brown, a recent graduate of the culinary arts program at Prince George’s Community College in Maryland.

Gurowitz says she never imagined a mentoring program would lead to a family, but she couldn’t be happier about it.

“I see these programs as ways to let people know about wonderful opportunities to meet amazing young people, to bring these kids who need and want loving connections into their families and enrich their lives,” she said. “As he starts his career, I look forward to seeing how that develops, but even more, I look forward to being part of his family.”

Brown is equally excited about the family ties. “There’s no age restriction for that, and she reminds me that she’ll be there even as I mature into adulthood.”