The goal of the Forever Families to help make a positive impact int he world by reforming the way we care for orphaned and vulnerable children, moving toward family care over institutional care.
We work to help child care institutions to shift their model from a residential orphanage to a family-based care and fund this good work.
Our mission
Help orphans and vulnerable children be in forever families (while preventing more orphans due to poverty).
Who we help
We support child care institutions that want to do the following:
- Reuniting children with their families, kin, and communities.
- Helping vulnerable children remain with their birth families (if possible), community-based care and local adoption.
- Preventing more orphans by keeping families together who could do so if they had financial and psychosocial support.
The Challenge
As many as 80% of vulnerable children in orphanages globally have living parents (and relatives) unable to care for them due to lack of financial resources and social support.
Science shows the best place the child can grow and have the best care is in the family. Now, a global movement aims to reunite children with families and help keep vulnerable families together.
We can safeguard children by supporting this approach that prioritizes families and doesn't remove children.
The Solution
Reunification, kinship care, foster care, and adoption are all alternatives to orphanages.
This means
- Help children return to their biological family whenever possible.
- Help children without a safe family find a new, loving family in their community.
- Support families at risk of separation (family preservation)
Supporting families is the best way to help orphaned children
Children should be families, not orphanages. The best way to meet the needs of vulnerable children is to strengthen the capacity of their families and communities to care for their well-being.
- This means identifying vulnerable families and making sure they are equipped to care well for their children at the community level.
- Direct resources including funding, [missional] volunteering, and government services to support vulnerable families.
- Support alternative family-based options for children who are unable to live with their biological family, like kinship care, foster care and adoption.
What is Family-based care?
The focus of Family-based care is providing the love, nurture, and security that allows a child to thrive through reunification with biological parents, kinship care, foster care, or adoption.
Also, a vital part of supporting family care is strengthening families to prevent unnecessary separation.
If this interests you, please consider getting involved