The gist
According to representatives with STAFO, more churches and community members are sought to help address a foster care crisis, which involves more than 3,000 abused and neglected children in the local foster care system each year.
Officials with STAO said the alliance bridges the gap between churchgoers and leaders, other community members, and the foster care system. The alliance works directly with churches to educate leaders and members about an ongoing foster care crisis and empower them to act, STAFO officials said.
In their own words
Jennifer Smith, founder and executive director of STAFO, said there is a critical shortage of foster parents across South Texas.
"Our ultimate goal is to end the foster care crisis and break the generational cycle of abuse and neglect by creating a ‘bench’ of families ready to provide a safe and nurturing environment for children and restoration of families,” Smith said in a statement. "We focus on equipping and empowering churches and individuals to provide vital support and resources for foster, adoptive and kinship families and caseworkers.”
John Fischer, who has served as a foster parent with STAFO, said being a foster parent is a way people can comprehensively help an orphaned child or teenager.
"I thought money was the best way you could help someone within the foster care crisis until I met Juan. Here was this very young man trying his best to be a man to his newly adopted siblings, and it was clear he had no one to model what being a man was all about,” Fischer said in a statement.
Fischer said, as a foster parent, he was able to offer lessons on such things as how to replace the brakes on a car and what to do in case of a flat tire.
“[Juan] was so appreciative and enthusiastic about learning these things, too. I’m grateful the Alliance has provided opportunities to not just give money to someone in need but also an opportunity to truly connect to another person in need,” Fischer said in a statement.
