More than 17,000 Arizona kids are in foster care, with 3,000 of those living in shelters or group settings, churches could be the missing link to finding them homes to call their own.
“These needs should be ours," Pastor Warren Stewart, Jr. of the Remnant South Phoenix church told ABC15. "Children shouldn’t be in group homes and homeless and in foster care.”
Stewart is also Director of Church Recruitment for Harvest of Hope Family Services. Through an effort praised by Governor Doug Ducey and his wife, he works to link up Valley churches with the resources they need to offer foster care ministries for current and prospective parents. On Saturday, 45 pastors attended a statewide summit.
Stewart says his recent work has been in communities like Maryvale or south Phoenix where a disproportionate number of kids are entering the foster care system.
“We have another strategy just to reach other churches of color who have not been reached and made aware of this.”
Berisha Black, Executive Director of Foster Care Initiatives, knows how important a loving home is for a foster child because she was a foster child. She's now in the process of formally adopting a child she and her husband took in two years ago.
“I got an amazing foster parent who just really displayed god’s love to me — an unconditional love. And I think every child deserves that,” Black says.
For more information on becoming a foster parent, visit http://dcs.az.gov.
