Feature #2 - Family Care ministry helps single mom, Jamie, to develop confidence.
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Due to the generosity of individuals, churches, and companies, clients in the Family Care ministry of Alabama Baptist Children's Homes do not have to pay for services. To help Alabama mothers and their dependent children, you, your church, and other groups are encouraged to participate in the Annual Children's Homes Offering. Phone 1 (888) 720-8805 for FREE!! resources to help promote the
Annual Offering.
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Imagine finding yourself as a single parent caring for three young children with no job, no family, and no help in sight. This would be unfathomable for many women, but for a growing number of moms, this is real life.
Family Care is designed to help each mother improve her financial and emotional situation without having to put her children into a group home or foster home. Since January 2002, the Children's Homes has provided Family Care services in Alabaster, Alabama. Recently in Mobile, Alabama, the Children's Homes opened a Family Care facility to help struggling mothers with their immediate crises. They develop skills needed to be providers and caregivers for their dependent children. For many of the Family Care clients, the challenges seem almost impossible to overcome at first. They discover soon, however, that they no longer have to face their problems alone, according to Case Manager Lisa Weber in Mobile. Family Care is a team approach with several Children's Homes staff members helping each family. Each home is staffed with one or more program coordinators who act as mentors, guides, and friends to the moms and as liaisons to professional counselors and social workers. The new Family Care ministry in Mobile is designed to work with other existing social services programs in the Mobile area, according to Mobile Campus, area director for the Children's Homes in southwestern Alabama. Family Care referrals come from individuals or their family members who hear about the program through radio and print advertisements, from social workers with the state Department of Human Resources (DHR) and other agencies, and from local pastors and other church staff. Each mother signs a three-month contract, renewable one or two times depending upon the situation and their progress in the program. As soon as she and her children begin living at either of the Family Care homes, they immediately gain help in dealing with their challenges.
Lisa says her job is to coach along the way and occasionally provide helping hands when one or more of those balls start to drop. One of the most difficult challenges Lisa faces is helping each mother to move beyond her own set ideas or ways of running her family. Making sure that everyone understands their family roles is the first priority. "Many times the children act more like the parent because the mother allows them to control the situation," Lisa notes. "Once family roles are clarified, the real work begins." In just three months, each mother must secure a job or begin job skill classes, register her children in school or apply for funded daycare, and begin looking for a home near her workplace. At least 30 percent of every paycheck must be put in savings. If a mom has an infant or toddler, DHR does not provide daycare unless the mom is employed at least 25 hours per week. This makes it difficult for single mothers to find childcare while they go on job interviews. Past job experience, or lack thereof, plays an important part in the mother's ability to find work. If she has no marketable job skills, which is often the case, then she must look for a typically low-paying job in retail, the fast-food industry, or the janitorial/cleaning profession. Women recovering from substance abuse have more difficulty finding steady employment. Days are long and hard, and nights are just as hectic for each single mother. Her determination to succeed, however, is nothing short of amazing. Family Care moms are real-life heroes in the eyes of their children and in the eyes of the everyday heroes who coach them at the Children's Homes. While the Family Care home in Alabaster is equipped for two families at a time, depending on the ages and numbers of children in each family, the Family Care home in Mobile is spacious enough for up to four families simultaneously. |
Even with the initial challenges of establishing steady employment and developing household management skills, mothers coming into the Family Care program at Alabama Baptist Children's Homes have one real benefit - they keep custody of and live with their dependent children.
"For each mom, life is like learning to juggle," says Lisa Weber. "She has the job ball, home ball, children in school or daycare ball, perhaps rehab ball, GED or jobs skills ball, and the bills and expenses ball. She has to learn to keep all of the balls in the air at the same time."
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