Fostering Capacity: The Role of Faith-Based Congregations in the Child Welfare System in the United States

Abstract

This article focuses on recent collaborative efforts between child welfare agencies and local congregations to recruit foster families. Drawing on in-depth interviews with persons involved in collaborations of this type, the article discusses the advantages and pitfalls associated with faith-based collaboration in the child welfare system. The major advantages seem to accrue both in congregations' strong religious motivations to care for children and the supportive social network provided by congregations. Potential pitfalls include a lack of flexibility and possible conflicts that could arise from unwanted proselytization of foster children. The article concludes with suggestions for future empirical inquiry that flow from these exploratory qualitative findings.

Keywords:

• child welfare
• collaboration
• faith-based
• foster care

Notes

1. All of the participants interviewed were supportive of collaboration from a normative point of view. Accordingly, when discussing the disadvantages of such collaborations, participants framed their answers more as challenges to be overcome or formative elements that might require program modification, not as wholesale philosophical objections to the principle of faith-based collaboration itself.

2. One study by Rhodes et al. (2003) examines the bivariate relationship between belonging to a place of worship and continuing in foster care after six months. The authors report that the relationship was not statistically significant, but do not provide details about the direction of the relationship.