“We see you, you are not alone”
by Stacie MacDonald
In the last year we launched 5 Care Communities for 5 different foster or adoptive families. A Care Community is a small team of people who volunteer to wrap around a foster, adoptive or kinship family for a year. The team provides practical, emotional and spiritual support to the family by delivering meals, providing free childcare, running errands, praying and overall supporting the family as they face the challenges that come with parenting kids who come from hard places.
One of our Care Communities just concluded their year commitment to the family. In that year of service they were able to provide 40 meal deliveries, equaling more than 280 individual meals. They planned 5 different special outings for the young kids in the family so the kids could have a fun day and experience care and nurture from trusted adults. These events gave the parents over 20 hours of free childcare so they could attend to other important things in their lives. The team provided in-home support of cleaning or laundry over 9 times in the year. And they did additional errands regularly for the family such as grocery store runs and recycling deliveries. The team spent an estimated 35 hours total running these errands for the family. All those hours provided additional time and space for the family to do the important work of family life — connecting with each other, working through emotional pain and helping the kids on their healing journey.
These numbers are impressive but more than the quantifiable service moments, they represent something more significant. This practical care communicated to an overwhelmed family, “I see you and you are not alone.” The team’s consistency showed the family that they are valuable and their needs matter. They provided a relational, hands-on answer to some logistical & practical challenges the family was facing. And in that showing up, they modeled for the family that it is not only okay to ask for help, but it is good to live life in community, dependent on other people.
Stacie MacDonald
Support Advocate for Resource & Adoptive Families
[email protected]