Actually, before I reblog, I'm going to do a little writing, but feel free to skip my hot air and go straight to the links at the bottom.
I wanted to share a couple blog posts from an organization called DC127, a brainchild (maybe heartchild?) of some folks from The District Church, an awesome faith community in DC of which I'm a part.
The name DC127 is based on James 1:27 and the mission is uniting to reverse the foster care waitlist in Washington, DC. In other words, we want more families in line to care for a child than there are children waiting for a family.
As a sciency/mathy kind of guy, to me, the idea is as intriguing as it is joyful. It's like a chemical reaction. Reactants A (kids waiting for care) and B (families who are willing to provide care) combine to create Product AB (a full family). Right now, we have an excess of Reactant A, so we need to mix in more of Reactant B if we want to eliminate A and arrive at the desired product AB, hopefully with a stoichiometric excess of B.
With me?
Ok, maybe that brought back nightmares of high school chemistry for some of you. But trust me, it's a good idea.
My purpose for reblogging this is twofold.
One, I want to raise awareness of the issue. Kids need a stable place to grow up if they are going to recognize their true worth and have the best shot at all the good things that God has created and planned for us. 400,000 kids are in the US foster care system, and about 1,300 of those are in DC. That's a lot of people, but I'd say the DC127 mission is realistic. What do you think?
Two, DC127 is in a campaign to find 46 regular donors to support the work. Why 46? The average child waits 46.7 months, almost 4 of their most formative years, to find a family. If you feel called, I hope you'll reach out and see how you could support, even for $10 per month.
So take a peek at the following well-written articles and let me know what you think.
Exactly where we should be
The cost of doing nothing
Dave, I love the chemistry example! Although, if too many people have high-school chemistry style nightmares, it's also an economic model!
ReplyDeleteYour "reactants A and B" are "factors of production" in creating foster families. There is a shortage of families willing to provide for these kids, making that the limiting factor. Which leads us to the root of economics: scarcity of resources. Why aren't there enough families to take in all the kids and what can we do about it?
Thanks! And thanks for looking at this as an economics problem. To (attempt to) answer your question, here are some thoughts.
DeleteI think building awareness is key, as with any issue. Different people have certain callings on their lives (such as being a adoptive or foster parent), and they can't live that out unless they have information and experiences. After meeting a few families here in DC who have adopted and hearing about the issue myself, I've thought that I might like to adopt someday (if I ever get to the place of building a family). Without the info and experience, I don't know if I ever would have thought about it.
In fact, there are at least 600 church congregations and about 1300 in the DC foster system. Easy math: that's about 2 kids for every congregation. Surely there are 1 or 2 or even 3 families per congregation with the calling of fostering or adopting.
People also need access to resources to live out their callings. I've heard that navigating the process is complicated, and there are lots of restrictions (the home doesn't have enough windows, the home contains lead paint, etc.). Those are real concerns, and we don't want kids in bad situations, but no one is stopping those parents from birthing children either. Just an example.
I hope this helps. A few more thoughts here:
http://dc127.org/about/#WhatYouCanDo