Safe Families for Children Comal/Guadalupe Chapter

Safe Families for Children (SFFC) hosts vulnerable children and creates extended family-like supports for families through a community of devoted volunteers motivated by compassion to keep children safe and ultimately together with their families.  Parents voluntarily place their children with safe, loving, and screened host families where they are cared for while additional volunteers help parents to restore stability in their lives.  SFFC strives to meet three objectives: 1) prevent child abuse by providing safe, temporary homes for children from families in crisis, 2) support and stabilize families in crisis by providing mentoring and referrals to appropriate resources, and 3) deflect children from entering the child welfare system by keeping healthy families intact and reunifying children with their parents.

Safe Families Comal/Guadalupe is being launched because there is a need to support families in crisis.   Safe Families Comal/Guadalupe aims to address the growing concern of homelessness, lack of support, unemployment, financial crisis and issues that puts families’ wellness at risk.  Safe Families for Children Comal/Guadalupe will support the families in the way they need it, while allowing for the parent(s) to maintain custody of their children.  In many cases when a family is at risk for becoming homeless, SF Comal/Guadalupe will be able to support the family by offering the children (and in some cases the parents as well) to be hosted in vetted and trained host homes while the parent(s) is supported by a family friend to secure stable housing.

Safe Families collaborates with many community organizations including child welfare agencies, homeless shelters, faith communities, etc. to expand the community safety net by providing parents in need with a loving sanctuary where they can safely place their children in times of crisis.  Designed to positively impact and support at-risk families, Safe Families is a non-coercive alternative to the state child welfare system, allowing parents to work out their challenges without having to worry about losing custody of their child.  SFFC engages a network of volunteers who serve as host families (who open their homes to children from families in crisis), family friends (who provide emotional support to families until they are able to get back on their feet), and resource friends (who provide goods or services to help families through their crisis).

How can you help? We need to get our circles of support together so we can help families in need and Host families. Getting Host Families and Family Friends through the training is vital.

We also need donors willing to financially support the professional piece of Safe Families for Children. While we are volunteer driven, there are some chapter funds needed to sustain this movement in our community.