Shared by Carolyn Robinson, Community Outreach Team, Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Lynchburg, VA
Isaiah 117 Homes provide physical and emotional support in safe and loving homes for children awaiting foster care placement. These children often have no belongings with them and are scared, lonely and hungry. They don’t know where they are going and are experiencing the trauma of being suddenly taken away from the only parents they know even if they have abused or neglected the children. The pace of finding a placement may be very slow. The mission of an Isaiah 117 home is to drastically change this scenario. Rather than having children wait in an office for an indefinite period in a Social Services building while the caseworker is making calls in search of a foster home, Isaiah 117 provides a safe and comfortable alternative for the children. Isaiah 117 homes are furnished with children of all ages in mind including the furnishings, toys, books, pajamas, clothing, and backpacks. The mission of Isaiah 117 homes is to reduce trauma for children awaiting placement, lighten the load for child welfare services, and ease the transition for foster families.
As you can imagine, going into foster care is not only traumatic for the child but also for the caseworker supporting him/her throughout this difficult process. Many times, children don’t understand why the caseworker is taking them away from their parents and the only home they know. The families are often angry with the caseworkers that “the system” has taken away their children. While the caseworkers’ mission is to help improve the situation, they often become the target for both the children’s and family members’ anger and hurt.
Lynchburg was blessed in March 2023, to have an Isaiah 117 home open to serve over 350 children in foster care in Lynchburg and the surrounding counties. This is one of four Isaiah 117 homes operating in Virginia. The homes are nonprofit organizations and receive no government funding. The home is staffed with two program directors and 40 volunteers. They rely heavily on donations from local businesses, churches, and other organizations. Anxious to learn more about the new Isaiah 117 home, Bethlehem Lutheran Church’s Community Outreach Team invited the home’s program coordinators to meet with the team to share information about how we could support the new home. Consistent with the mission of other Isaiah 117 homes, they were determined to make “removal day” a more positive memory for the children they served. They also had another important goal and that was to support the caseworkers involved with foster placements. The administrators encouraged churches and other volunteer groups to show their appreciation for the 45 caseworkers who support the children on the 17th day of each month.
Bethlehem’s Susan Baughman, Community Outreach Team member, accepted the challenge to lead the team’s effort to support the caseworkers. Since the gifts were for the month of April, Susan used “April Showers Bring May Flowers” as the theme for the project. Caseworkers spend a lot of time in their vehicles travelling to visit foster homes so the team decided to make individual “Car Kits” for minor emergencies. Thanks to the generosity of the Bethlehem family and a Thrivent grant, Susan was able to purchase enough supplies to make 45 car kits. Each kit was filled with a water bottle, flavor packet, snack bar, tic tacs, notepad, mechanical pencil, hand wipes, eyeglass cleaners, tissues, a microfiber cloth, safety pins, paperclips, rubber bands and a few disposable shopping bags, as well as a stress ball, and a ready to grow plastic cup with lid, peat pellet, and marigold seeds. Each kit also included a thank you card that said, “Because of you, children bloom despite the storms in their lives.” along with an origami tulip. The bags were blessed by Bethlehem’s Pastor Tim Feaser during a worship service and then given to staff at the Isaiah House to deliver to the caseworkers.
Isaiah 117 Homes take their name from the Bible verse Isaiah 1:17: “Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.” The Bethlehem family is blessed to show, in one small way, our support and appreciation for the caseworkers who are supporting the children in such a big way every day!
