Join us as we care for vulnerable children and families! Everyone can play a part. From foster, adoptive, or kinship families who open their homes, to volunteers who support each child and family, we are all called to love our neighbor.
The Haven
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! This space allows children to receive the comfort and care they need while child welfare staff can do the necessary paperwork and identify a good placement.
Visit The Haven’s website HERE
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
