Respite Event (Parents’ Day Out) for Foster Parents
In the Bay Area, there are 4,300 kids in foster care. Help One Child is an organization founded in 1993 that serves as a bridge between churches and child welfare professionals. Help One Child knows the vastness and complexity of the foster care system and can help churches find ways to get involved. By partnering with Help One Child, we can provide hands, feet, and space to aid them in their work with these special families.
What is a Respite Event?
A single-day event for honoring foster, adoptive, and kinship families by treating the parents to a couple of kid-free hours while their children are cared for by a volunteer team that provides a safe, structured, and fun environment. A couple of hours of respite will allow parents to recuperate, rest, catch up on some household tasks, do some Christmas shopping, or have a long-overdue date time. The event will take place entirely on the BCC campus.
What are the details?
Sat., Dec. 4, 11:00am to 3:00pm. A 45-minute training is also required for all volunteers, 10:00-10:45am on the day of the event.
Why is training required?
Part of Help One Child’s mission is to equip volunteers with an understanding and awareness of the difficulties housing non-biological children may offer. We want all of our volunteers to have a basic understanding of the population we serve and why we, as Christians, are called to action. We also want to equip volunteers with best practices and how to help a dysregulated child. The success of the event is influenced by the preparedness of the volunteers.
What ages of children will be there?
The ages of the children will range from infants to about age 16. We are expecting about 40-50 children to show up.
Who can volunteer?
Volunteers must be age 15 or older. You may not bring your own younger children when you come to help unless you are working in the nursery. We expect to need about 25 volunteers.
What will the volunteers be doing?
We will need help watching children in the nursery and preschool, as well as supervising activities for the elementary and teenage children. Activities will range from free play in the gym and on our playgrounds to supervised games to arts and crafts. We will also be providing a meal (lunch) to all of the children during this time.
How do I sign up?
Click HERE to access the sign-up sheet, where you can enter what area you’d like to help with.
Questions?
For questions about service opportunities, please contact Kathy Spillar in the BCC office: kathy@bridges.church.