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When Community Ambassadors was formed in 2010, there were no preconceived ministries or outreaches in mind.  We did not emerge by launching a food pantry or clothing drive or homeless ministry just because it seemed like the “thing” to do to get our feet wet in serving the community.  Rather, we made a commitment to, first, learn about our community – get to know our neighborhoods, engage the school system, integrate into the marketplace, research the local issues, etc. – all in order to understand the actual, legitimate needs of our community.  Of course, the second part of this commitment was, once the needs revealed themselves, we then needed to respond accordingly to those needs, regardless of how challenging they may be.

 

That said, in 2013, at one of the Parma Area Ministerial Forums, we invited representatives from the Cuyahoga County Division of Children & Family Services to come talk to our area pastors and church leaders about a crisis that I was actually unfamiliar with at the time – the rising need for local foster and adoptive parents.  In this meeting, the county officials informed the group that there were currently 600 plus youth in Cuyahoga County classified as orphans.  They say, “ignorance is bliss,” and now I understand why.  To think that there are 600 kids without parents or homes in MY community is troubling!  Ever since that meeting, this knowledge has disturbed me greatly.

 

Prior to this meeting, the local adoption needs were not even on our radar.  Nowhere in any of Community Ambassadors’ meeting notes would you find a plan to eradicate the orphan epidemic in northeast Ohio, but that no longer mattered.  What mattered was that we now had knowledge of a problem.  As naive as we may have been back in 2010, our commitment was to respond to the needs of our community, whatever they may be, and do whatever it took to bring appropriate and effective solutions to those needs.  Following the Ministerial Forum, this was something that we realized we could not turn a blind eye to.  We had to do something.

 

At the beginning of 2014, Community Ambassadors decided to formulate an awareness campaign called Stop The Wait.  The purpose of this initiative is four-fold:

 

BUILD - To build awareness of the current foster and adoptive care crisis in Cuyahoga County.

EDUCATE - To educate on the process of becoming a foster or adoptive parent.

PROVIDE - To provide area churches and organizations tools that will help to build awareness among their constituents.

CONNECT - To connect prospective foster or adoptive parents to resources and local supports.

 

While Community Ambassadors’ efforts may only be a drop in the bucket, I truly believe that the local Church can fix this problem.  Indeed, there are enough churches in this area that, if only a fraction of them took action, Cuyahoga County could very well become a county without orphans.  Imagine that. And who better to address this issue head on than the Church?

 

Will you help in building awareness and spreading the word?  There is a dire need for more local families to consider fostering or adopting a local child. Perhaps there are families within your congregation right now that the Lord is already speaking to their hearts about fostering or adopting.  Many times interested parents are simply afraid to take that first step toward fostering or adopting because they don’t know where to start, or they presume that they are under-qualified or ill-equipped.  The resources and supports to guide them through this process are now right at their fingertips. We just need to get the word out.  Thank you in advance for partnering with us in this effort.

 

TAKE ACTION:  Call, Collaborate, or Contribute!

 

CALL - To receive more information about local foster care and adoption opportunities, as well as free resources and supports, call the Parma Area Family Collaborative at 440-887-4873.

 

COLLABORATE - Interested in hosting a FREE foster and adoptive care awareness event or informational workshop at your church?  Call 216-200-7030 to coordinate!

 

CONTRIBUTE - Support the cause.  Consider making a donation at www.StopTheWait.com/Contribute.