Whether you're an individual or a community of faith, you can bring children into a circle of support and love. These projects serve as both an introduction of the foster care and adoption community while helping provide the children with their basic needs as they transition into temporary and permanent families. Each volunteer project is a great way to engage members in a meaningful activity and encourage bonding, while making a positive difference for children.
Give
Who: Individuals or Faith Communities
What: Your one-time or monthly gift sustains our programming with the ultimate goal that every child can feel the love they long for.
How: Our donation page has multiple options to partner with us through giving!
What: Prayer is one of the foundational activities to make a difference in their lives and leads to action. You can be a part of ensuring that all 3700 children are in state care. With just 370 prayer volunteers, we can make this happen together! Praying for each child individually, identified by gender and age, we believe that we can pray for a distinct expression of their needs.
How: Sign up to receive a prayer guide in the mail. Each packet includes ten children to pray over with non-identifying information about each child.
If you're part of a faith community - schedule a consultation today to find out how your congregation can get involved. Even if you're just a member - introduce us to your congregation staff, and we can share how our faith partnership works!
What: This event involves a packing assembly line of essential toiletry items (for the kits), pajamas, stuffed animals, coloring books, blankets and more (for the backpacks). Both kits and backpacks replace children’s trash bag luggage and help ease them into a new home. CPS workers will have these on hand for the children at the time they are placed in a foster home.
How: We ask the congregations to secure these items by holding drives or purchasing them for these events.
What: Many foster children and adopted children need weighted blankets because their evenly distributed weight has a calming effect, as the blanket “mimics a hug” and reduces tantrums. Many insurance policies do not cover the cost, which is often above $100. Sewing and donating these blankets is a great benefit to the children and families. We collaborate with local child placing agencies to identify children in need of a blanket.
How: We ask volunteers to secure their own materials for these sewing projects. For information on becoming a weighted blanket volunteer, please us.
Who: This project involves volunteers from many different ages and skill levels. The leader needs to be a manually skillful congregant and builders need to be comfortable with light power tools. There is something for everyone to do including securing funds, holding drives for bedding and mattresses, decorating pillowcases, and delivering finished beds to CPS.
What: Children placed in permanent or temporary housing are required to have their own bed. We provide the step-by-step guide on how to construct these simple beds that either allow a relative to take in a child and keep him/her from entering state care, or a foster family lacking a bed to take in a child, thus preventing him/her from being placed in an emergency shelter.
How: We ask congregations to secure all materials and supplies needed for the project and volunteer labor for the events and deliveries.
By serving, your faith community may grow. There are no guarantees, but keep in mind that just as the children seek forever families, these families seek faith communities. Also, individual members may find a new purpose and reason to stay actively involved. One of our greatest needs as humans is to have a purpose, to work and provide what others need.
Without the kindness and contributions from our community and faith partners, like Cultivating Families, our team would not be able to assist CPS Caseworkers in meeting the safety and security needs of children and youth. Donated beds have not only given a child a comfortable bed to sleep in but have helped maintain placements with relatives and other caregivers. We are grateful to all our Community Partners for helping to meet needs that will ensure permanency, safety, and stability for our children!
Alysa V. Elliott-Wilson
Faith-Based & Community Engagement Regional Administrator, Region 6
Our church youth LOVE to get involved in this hands-on way of loving their neighbors. It also educates our youth to the realities of children in the foster care process and gives them a chance to make a difference.
Renee Teel
Director of Missions, Christ UMC, Sugar Land
Building CPS beds is an ongoing youth mission at our church. This mission gives our youth a heightened awareness of a vital need within their community along with helping them learn more basic wood working skills. This mission has a positive impact on the lives of those who build the beds and those who receive the beds.
