Keeping Foster Siblings Together In Woods County
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Could your household add 3 or more children at once? Not many can. That’s why foster children in sibling sets of 3 or more have only a 65% chance of staying together in foster care. Siblings from abuse and neglect situations often have a unique and deep bond with each other. For older children who act as a parent to their younger siblings, separating them is like separating a parent from their child, a deeply traumatic experience.
Oklahoma United Methodist Circle of Care and Alva First United Methodist Church are partnering to keep siblings together in Woods County. Circle of Care recruits, trains and supports foster parents statewide. Alva First United Methodist Church has rallied their members to secure donated land and building funds for one large custom residential home that can accommodate up to six children and their foster parents. The church, the surrounding community and the Oklahoma United Methodist Foundation have been instrumental in making this vision a reality.
The public is invited to a groundbreaking ceremony at the new home Wednesday, January 31, 2018, at 12:00 p.m. at the end of Noble Street to the south in Alva, OK. (A specific address has not yet been established.) Guests will celebrate the beginning of a new foster home and the ending of unnecessary trauma to foster children in Woods County.
For information about the Alva foster home, contact Dr. Carol Cook Moore, senior pastor at Alva First United Methodist Church, at (580) 327-2571. For information about the statewide campaign to keep foster siblings together, contact Sarah Steffes, VP of Development at Circle of Care, at (405) 215-1400. Donations to the project are appreciated and can be sent to Circle of Care, 1501 NW 24th St., Oklahoma City, OK 73106.
Circle of Care’s mission is to provide help, healing and hope to children and families in crisis to ensure a safe, healthy and spiritual future.
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