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Home for Good: welcoming adopting and fostering into the Church
Home for Good is a charity dedicated to finding a home for every child who needs one.
Across Bristol, there are 768 children in care (March 2024), which is a rate of 84 per 10,000 children and is higher than the national average of 70 per 10,000 children.
The charity works to resource and coordinate a network of people to raise awareness of the needs of vulnerable children and young people, inspiring individuals to explore fostering, adoption and supported lodgings.
is needed now More than ever
What is different about this charity is that it is rooted in the church and local movements across the UK.
In 2011, against the backdrop of a parent/carer shortage, leaders of religious organisations noticed an opportunity to leverage their community network and resources to attempt to positively affect this crisis.
Dave Kingswood a Church and Community Relationships Coordinator, says they recognised that there was this “huge need in society,” but it dawned on them that they could personally be doing more.
In seeing it as a social issue, it encouraged others within the church to ask what they were doing, to ask “Where are we at in terms of opening our homes?
“How can we be singing songs in church and not taking in the most vulnerable in our city?”
But he says Bristol is a great place to encourage this because of its “huge appetite for social justice.”
Having worked in for the charity in several cities before more recently moving to Bristol with his family, he says that there’s an incredibly strong relationship between local authorities and the churches.
However, he is clear that they not only recognise the challenges that occur in adopting and fostering but they actually are hand to support those who choose to accept those challenges.
Volunteers raising awareness of the charity – photo: Home for Good
There are practical elements like having a spare room in a housing market that is the most expensive outside of London and working around care and pastoral duties.
But then there are the more serious considerations, he asks: “What is it going to mean to have a child that has maybe gone through some really tricky, early experiences in life?
“Having been through trauma, how will that present like and will it affect my own children?”
He says that has been a growing level of fear around the process due to the occasional negative media portraits of what the experience is like.
But the charity and its volunteers say that while negative experiences aren’t unfounded, there are ways to navigate them and support is essential in ensuring the best outcome for all people involved.
Have volunteers from Home for Good as a point of contact allows for concerns and questions to be addressed in a productive and direct way.
One of the charities volunteers Becky, is an adoptee and also works in an initiative called Hope for Champions.
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Becky has a 15-year-old daughter that came into her life aged six. Things haven’t always been smooth sailing, but her experience is a testament to the organisations mission to support people like her.
Her daughter was with her birth family for four years before being taken into foster care.
From there she was moved across the country, away from what she knows, her friends and her school – a common occurrence in the sector.
Naturally this instability had an impact on her.
“When she came to me, these effects of trauma kicked in, it impacted her behaviour and there were times when she was violent towards me,” says Becky.
“It’s not easy and its not for everyone”, she adds, her daughter’s early year experiences left her mental health in poor condition.
But she says firmly that without question it is the best thing she’s ever done.
“She is my daughter. She is my baby, even though she’s 15 and taller than me.”
The teenager doesn’t go to church, but the congregation still support her and her mum.
In the earlier years her community came together to cook her enough food that she didn’t need to cook for three weeks, which was one less task to do at a time when she needed to prioritise her daughter.
The experience has also been easier as there are other children and young people who are fostered or adopted.
This enabled her daughter to make friends and she continues to see them outside of the church.
Like many charitable organisations, they are attempting to bridge the gap in support for young people.
Becky explains “It’s not just I feel like it’s not always easy to find, it’s not always necessarily free to get that support.
“If you want to go down a professional path it’s almost impossible, we’ve been battling for years.”
Her daughter has been on the waitlist for CAHMS three to four years before they received support from them.
Financial support has also been cut back on, first the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund was removed and then it was reinstated but in a limited capacity.
Being able to lean on her church is the reason Becky and so many others were able to persist through the challenges and make long-term connections.
Dave Kingswood and his foster daughter – photo: Kingswood family
Currently the team are partnered with Safe Families which is all about early interventions.
They connect families across the UK with local volunteers, who offer support in a range of of ways including peer support groups dotted around the city.
Dave says: “It’s an opportunity to come alongside families who the local authority have identified as struggling, and the chances are the way that family is going to go, that kids are going to end up in care.”
But they’re finding with just an hour of time a week with one of their trained volunteers, the families and children are happier.
They’ve coined ‘An hour for a lifetime.’
A challenge that they’re calling on people to participate in and support a family now.
Main photo: Home for Good
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