Welcome, New Affiliate: Safe Families for Children
We’re excited to welcome Safe Families for Children to our affiliate family! After 2 years of effort by the Community Launch Team made up of local pastors and community members, Safe Families is excited to join the New York nonprofit community. We are confident in their mission and dedication to bringing hope to families in crisis in our city and we rejoice that they are finally coming to New York!
Safe Families works with local churches to ensure that at-risk families receive the help they need to keep their children out of foster care. Their vision is to see all families together and healthy through the love and support of faithful volunteers.
Safe Families is part of a national organization with chapters in many large cities across the country. New York City is their newest location. We asked the NYC Coordinator Laura Galt to answer a few questions about Safe Families and the future of the organization in New York.
What is the best part about working with Safe Families for Children?
It is incredibly encouraging to partner with various churches and believers in the city. Every time we have a gathering of pastors or volunteers, I am so inspired by their passion to serve their communities. I look forward to the day when we officially launch and are working directly with families in crisis. I have relationships with families in crisis in NYC who are isolated and have no one to turn to and would benefit from Safe Families. It is my passion to support parents so that we can keep families intact.
How is our culture impacted by Safe Families for Children?
The people of NYC will see followers of Jesus opening their homes and lives to the marginalized and vulnerable in our city. This will be extremely counter-cultural to the busy, self-focused mentality of New York City.Our city's culture will also be renewed as local churches help to reduce the strain on the foster system and contribute to all of the other measurable benefits of keeping families intact.
What can volunteers expect from working with Safe Families for Children?
There are a variety of volunteer roles and opportunities. Host families care for children in their homes. Coaches and family friends offer support to the host family and/or the placing parent. Resource friends offer supplies or services. All volunteers will be part of a team coordinating with others to offer holistic care but will be free to focus only on their agreed-upon role.
What does being an affiliate of HFNY mean to you and your organization?
It is exciting to partner with an organization and its affiliates who are already serving the poor and marginalized in our city. I know that we will mutually benefit from our relationships with the other affiliates and look forward to working together. We are excited about the church partners of HFNY, as Safe Families is a ministry of the church.
What is the message you most want people to understand about Safe Families for Children?
Followers of Jesus are called to offer hospitality, which means "love of stranger." Safe Families for Children is one very strategic and needed way that believers in NYC can love our neighbor. By reaching out to families in crisis, we can directly impact the lives of parents and their children. We can offer community and become like spiritual extended family. We can prayerfully see the 14,000 children in foster care in NYC decrease in number. We can keep families intact and empower parents to care for their children. We can offer the love of Jesus to our neighbors.
Join Hope for New York in welcoming this new affiliate to our family and be sure to visit their page to learn how you can get involved!
To sign up for Volunteer Training July 25th, click here.
To refer a family to Safe Families for Children, contact them by phone or email: 917.589.0314, brooklyn@safefamilies.net, or manhattan@safefamilies.net.