Safe Families for Children

Do you remember when we had a representative of LYDIA Home speak to us last spring about their Safe Families for Children program?

To refresh your memory, here's the description of the program from their website:

Safe Families for Children is an opportunity for volunteers to have a powerful impact in the lives of others while practicing biblical hospitality, extending the love of Christ to people in need — all from their own home!

Volunteers open their homes to children whose parents are experiencing a short-term emergency, such as hospitalization, or a longer-term crisis, such as drug abuse. Designed to extend and strengthen the community safety net for at-risk families, Safe Families is a positive alternative to the state child welfare system, allowing parents to work out their problems without having to worry about losing custody of their kids. The program's goal is to reunite children with their biological parent(s) in a home that is more stable and healthy, in part because of the contribution of the Safe Families intervention.

They've been getting a lot good press lately. From a recent newsletter:

Thanks to prominent articles in The New York Times, Quad-City Times and Indianapolis Star and a segment on WBBM-TV in Chicago, people all over America are learning about how God is using Safe Families to transform lives.

But that's not all. On Monday, May 18, the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric will feature Safe Families as the first installment in a series about children and the recession. This is an exciting opportunity for us to tell others about this great program, and feature some of the hundreds of volunteer families who help make it possible.

As you know, Safe Families has been experiencing a dramatic climb in referrals in recent months. One reason is that the weak economy is putting more strain on already-stressed families, taking them to a point of crisis. Your sacrifices are helping us keep pace with this program growth, and serving as a testimony to God's grace in your own lives.

Here's the video from CBS News. If you weren't looking for it, you might not pick up on the fact that this is a Christian ministry, which is immediately apparent from the first sentence on the website (above). Oh, and don't forget that LYDIA Home is affiliated with the Evangelical Free Church of America, our association of churches.

Watch CBS Videos Online

For some reason, I can't seem to embed the video, so here's a link.