Cherishing Children

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month, established by the Department of Health and Human Services to increase public awareness of the need to ensure the safety and welfare of children. For my own community, there is a horrible irony in that statement (a four-year-old boy was killed by his father this week) which should propel us to think about the plight of all at-risk children around us, and to cherish all children, everywhere.

As a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteer, I have a bit of insight into the legal/protective system put in place to ensure the safety and welfare of children in our area. In many ways, it is a broken system, and that's not because the individuals caught up in it aren't, for the most part, trying to do the right thing. Overworked and mostly underpaid, with resources being cut every day, the people charged with taking care of the kids who end up in protective custody have some of the least-enviable jobs in the country.

How can we go about improving the system? Specifically, what can the faith community do about it? Because I believe it is the job of the Church to rise up and help address this shameful situation.

First, not every person is in a position to be a foster parent, or even a CASA, but I call on pastors in every community to be informed about the needs of these vital programs and to present those needs to their congregations. Where I live, the lack of local foster care providers is a huge complicating factor, with kids from our county who have been removed from their homes being scattered all across the state in various facilities, (many of which aren't much better than where they were living before, quite honestly). This forces the people who work with them to use precious time and resources to go where the kids are, and the children end up being neglected, even within the system.

Aside from what individuals can do, there are churches in every community with enough resources to open residential homes for children who need a safe haven. I call on church members to form committees and investigate how to go about it. A few committed individuals, working together, could make a huge impact on foster care needs, while at the same time having the opportunity to help salvage children's lives, showing them what compassion means and breaking cycles of abuse and neglect

Jesus looked on children as precious, and he cherished them with his lavish, unconditional love. He calls on us to do no less.