Alongside Families

Alongside Families provided 78 hostings for children whose parents were experiencing a crisis situation. Alongside Families connected isolated Families who were experiencing a crisis such as parent hospitalization, homelessness, or unemployment, to thoroughly screened, approved volunteers in local partner churches who provided temporary care for children in the volunteers homes while the parent stabilized their situation. Hosting was 100% voluntary on the part of the parent, who maintained full custody of their child(ren and were reunited whenever they felt ready. Voluteers were supported by their church community through babysitting, meals, and transportation while hosting children. Our professional staff team provided screening, training, and approval of volunteers, intake of Families in need, and safety oversight during hostings. This program services kept Families intact and prevented children from unnecessarily entering foster care when no neglect or abuse had occurred. 100% of children hosted were reunited with her or his parents. This program services also provided a way for local churches to actively live out christs love to their neighbors during difficult times and provided a platform and means for local churches to be on the front lines of family preservation and to servce vulnerable Families in a holistic way.

Alongside Families provided supportive coaching for 48 parents while their children were being hosted. Alongside Families connected parents going through a difficult time in life to trained parent ally volunteers who guided parents through goal setting, connecting to essential community resources, and meeting their goals for stabilizing their family situation. Alongside Families also provided family coach volunteers for each child hosting who monitored the safety of the child in the host home, helped volunteer host Families to build strong relationships with the parent, and helped host Families to get resources in place for children being hosted to thrive. Alongside Families provided weekly, supportive supervision to parent ally and family coach volunteers through a family care manager to ensure appropriate safety oversight, guidance, and problem-solving. This program service allowed parents in crisis to successfully navigate their goals for family stability. This service resulted in 100% reunification of children with their parents and in parents who were better equipped to care for their children and to access community resources at the end of the hosting. This program service also provided a compelling way for volunteers in local churches to build close, empowering relationships with parents in crisis. Through building relationships with isolated parents and empowering those parents to tap into their god-given gifts and potential, Families were strengthened, and churches were engaged in the needs of the community.

Alongside Families engaged with the local community to form partnerships, to train and equip, and to fund the needs of the organization. Alongside Families provided training for volunteers within local partner churches to equip new volunteers to serve and to better equip current volunteers. Training focused on topics such as generational poverty, trauma, resilience, cross-cultural relationship building, strengthening Families, and goal setting. Alongside Families also actively engaged with and presented to organizations in the community to make them aware of Alongside Families as a resource for Families in need that they serve, including medical service providers, homeless shelters, churches, crisis pregnancy centers, medical advocacy groups, and domestic violence shelters. Alongside Families frequently gave presentations at local churches to raise awareness of the need for community for isolated Families in our city, to engage churches in theological basis for the why we are called as christians to love our neighbors, to build partnerships with local churches, and to raise funding support to allow us to provide services to isolated Families. Alongside Families worked closely with partnering churches to train and equip volunteer ministry coordinators, support churches in growing their ministry, and provide ongoing staff support for ministry coordinators coordinating service activities of volunteers in their church. This program service furthered our purpose of equipping local churches to extend christs love to their neighbors by building strong partnerships with local churches and equipping volunteers with the knowledge and skill sets they needed to serve Families who are isolated and in poverty. It also increased our network of referral partners in the community who are aware of our services and that can now connect Alongside Families with Families experiencing isolation who would benefit from our support services.