By Debbie Marini

It’s July, the start of a new business year for us at Building Families for Children.  We look forward to sharing with you our 2014 Annual Report soon.  As we look to the future, I want to provide you with some of the highlights of this past year:

  • An agency-wide transition took place to enable us to continue to serve and grow.  We became an Independent Agency of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware in the fall.  Our Board approved the Agency’s new name, Statement of Faith, Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation.  The State has recognized our new name, “Building Families for Children” and we await the Federal Government’s approval of our 501(c)(3) status.
  • Several “visual” changes followed the name change, giving us a new visual identity. And our new website recently launched along with a Facebook page and Twitter account.  We pray that this media will keep you connected and engaged with our mission and programs!
  • Our Safe Families for Children program began targeted efforts in one county while maintaining volunteer interest in other areas.  This resulted in an increase in referrals from 36 in 2013 to 69 in 2014 and an increase in hosting arrangements of 6 children in 2013 to 19 children/parents in 2014.  For the first time, we had a few hosting arrangements that included parent and child(ren).  This was both a challenge and a blessing!
  • Our Safe Families program supports parents by linking them up with a mentor called a “Family Friend” and this year, we had 6 of these arrangements strengthening and encouraging each other.
  • We saw an overall growth in the number of children helped through our CHOSEN Treatment Foster Care program this year due to the fact that we were able to retain the children we served and recruit new families.  37 new children were placed in therapeutic foster homes.  30 children were discharged and of those discharges that were planned over 80% of them left to reunify with family or move to a less restrictive setting.
  • 39 calls to our church Helpline were made and support for difficult situations was provided.
  • Thanks to the generosity of a donor, we opened a new Transitional home and a mother and her teenage daughter who were homeless moved in and are receiving support.  Since they moved in last fall, mom has gotten a job and is beginning to establish herself again toward the goal of self-sufficiency.
  • Patterson Park Baptist Church honored a long time relationship with Baptist Family & Children’s Services with a gift of $54,000 at the time of their closing.  This made a significant difference and we are grateful and yet sorry to see the church close it’s doors.
  • 2,375 children received Material Assistance at Back-to-School and Christmas.
  • We began an initiative in Howard County called Open Table and we held our first Exploration with the faith community in May.  We hope to expand this ministry model to support young adults “launching” from the foster care system in the coming year and be a resource to the churches who step forward to assist with this!
  • We began the development of a new set of programs called Comprehensive Family Services.  This is an initiative that we pray strengthens our professional services offered to support at-risk families in the goal of stability and remaining together.
  • Finally, we have 6 new Board members who were voted in at our last Board meeting in June and will begin this fall.  Our board will continue to be from majority Baptist churches while we welcome others of the Christian faith to join us in our mission.

A new year is ahead and we look to the future with God-sized vision for the family He intended! Pray for us!  Join us in this wonderful and challenging mission!