Foster Care Ministry

Join us as we move towards vulnerable children and families, the essence of being a gritty disciple.

OUR MISSION is to engage our community by providing a place of rest and safety for children in foster care as they wait for a foster home.

OUR VISION is to see children encounter the love of Jesus through their time at the Haven.

The Department of Children’s Services works hard daily to place children in loving foster homes. With the shortage of foster homes in Tennessee, many children face the problem of waiting in the DCS office for an open home.

Taken from their known surroundings and placed into a cubicle-filled, florescent-lit space that is not meant for children is the heartbreaking reality of most children in state custody. The situation is even more drastic for children with higher risk needs who may take longer to find placement for.

As a community, we are opening The Haven at Ridgedale, a comfortable, temporary home for children in foster care where they can receive the love of Jesus through things like a good meal, warm shower, new clothing, and more!

Ways to Help!

We hope construction will begin this winter! As we prepare to open this home to guests, we need your help!

Prayer

The provision of God has been evident from the start of our foster care ministry and we are excited to see him continue to provide. As we start construction we need prayer for work to go smoothly. We covet prayers over our staff as we work to welcome children into The Haven, prayers for each child who enters The Haven as they experience pain and loss, prayer over DCS workers who will stay with the children 24/7, and prayers for our volunteers who will help The Haven run.

Donations

The Haven would not be possible without the generous donations of others. Through monetary donations we will be able to complete renovations to make our space safe and up to code, as well as keep The Haven up and running filled with comforting food for each guest. Through donations of new clothing, furniture, and toys we can host our guests well. And through the donation of time by volunteering at our house in a variety of ways, we can show the love of Jesus personally to each child.

Volunteers

We have a variety of ways to volunteer at The Haven!
Buddies: Volunteer as a buddy to be present with a child while they are at The Haven. The DCS worker will be calling foster homes, or facilities to find placement for children, but we all know kids like to be entertained. A buddy’s role is to do age appropriate activities with the child they volunteer with.

Organizers: A team to help keep our storage closet with clothing, toys, and supplies, organized, labeled, and clean.

Meal Team: We need volunteers to deliver meals to The Haven for the children and social workers present each day the space is occupied. If you have the gift of cooking, or buying meals, we would love to have you serve in this way!

Clean Up Crew: To help our house be fresh for every person that walks through the door, we need people who love to clean! Volunteers will take out trash, sweep, vacuum, change bedding, do laundry, dishes, and reset the home for our next guests.

Administrative Needs: Use your gifts to help with data entry for clothing and item donations.

Media Team: Social media, photography, videography, will all help spread the word about how The Haven at Ridgedale can impact lives.

Fundraising Team: Creating and executing fundraising events or campaigns to help The Haven be sustainable long term.

Events team: Help plan and run events to raise awareness about The Haven at Ridgedale

To Volunteer, email: carolinep@ridgedalebaptist.org

To join our email list for updates sign up here:

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To make The Haven a welcoming home!

FAQ

Who will stay with the kids? Will there be house-parents?

The Department of Children’s Services workers will be with the children 24/7. Higher risk cases may even have security personnel with the children. There is no need for house-parents since DCS workers will be with the kids 24/7.

How long will children be at The Haven?

Kids could stay at The Haven for as little as a few hours if a foster home is found quickly. However, some kids may end up needing a place to rest for several weeks.

Why do we need volunteers?

When kids are at The Haven, their DCS workers may be working on case notes. We want to engage the children and teens and make them feel so loved. For each person to feel like they are important and worth loving is what we aim to do! This can be done through making a meal with a child, playing outside together, or even with playing board games. We also will need volunteers who can clean the house in between guests as our facilities team at church is already at the limit with the church to clean.

What does safety look like at The Haven?

When The Haven is open, we plan to have security cameras in all public areas of the house and outside. We will have door alarms on bedroom doors, outside doors, and windows. This will help us ensure that the children are safe and where they are supposed to be, and that everyone on our church campus is safe as well.

Who is doing the construction?

Our friends at Croxall Residential. The team has a big heart for children in foster care and generously waived all management fees for this project. Their connections with other like-minded businesses in the area, like Ferguson, have helped us keep the costs for this project low.

If you have more questions, email our Foster Care Ministry Director at carolinep@ridgedalebaptist.org.


Serving Foster, Adoptive, and Kinship Families

Providing Support

As Christians, we have a God who cares for the vulnerable and who shows us how to do the same. Children in foster care need caring families to support them through healing as they go on to be reunified with their biological family, a relative, or to be adopted. 

Not everyone is called to foster or adopt, but all Christians are called to care for the vulnerable. At Ridgedale we seek to care for foster families, kinship families, and adoptive families by providing support in a variety of ways. Everyone in the church can do something, from writing cards, or delivering a meal, to house work. There are lots of tangible ways to lift up foster parents to help them better care for each child in their home. 

This is where Ridgedale and other churches in the Chattanooga area come in. We want to provide WRAP around care for families! Agencies continually have a need for stable foster parents, and so many foster homes choose to close due to feeling overwhelmed, and not having enough support. WRAP teams provide that support! Through the WRAP model, foster families can receive a meal during a busy week of appointments and social worker visits, or be blessed by others who volunteer to babysit. We have structured WRAP teams to enable you to minister to a foster family with ease throughout your normal routines.

WRAP teams

WRAP is an acronym for each area of support we desire to provide to foster families.

As a WRAP team member, you pick one area to serve in and focus on supporting your team’s foster family each month!

W

Words of Encouragement – Sending uplifting texts, regular notes, children drawing pictures for other children, etc. 

R

Respite Care – Providing a time to watch foster parent’s children so that they can go to the store, have a date night, or do some self care.

A

Acts of Service – Doing housework like laundry, cleaning, cooking, yard work, car maintenance, any other service you can imagine!

P

Prayer – Lifting up the foster parents, children, biological parents, caseworkers, and more that are involved in each situation, and asking families what they need prayer for.

If you feel drawn to one WRAP area above, sign up to be a volunteer to provide care for a foster family in the Chattanooga Area.

Why Wrap Teams? (Video)
WRAP Teams Make A Difference (Video)

If you have more questions, email our Foster Care Ministry Director at carolinep@ridgedalebaptist.org.


Are you a foster or adoptive family in need of support?

Fill out our form and we will be in contact with ways we can serve you!

Check out our events page for upcoming events for foster and adoptive families


Meet Our Foster Care Ministry Director: Caroline Powell