Childcare has been a service provided by New Horizons from our beginning. Childcare, and specifically foster care, is important because it meets a crucial need for children and their families caused by trauma and brokenness.
In a recent Trauma Informed Care training in which some of our foster parents participated, it defined trauma as an anti-appearance of God. Christ-centered foster care is important because it allows children to experience Christ’s presence and love through having their physical and emotional needs met on a consistent basis. Foster parents consistently meeting these needs builds trust and nurtures a feeling of safety and security for the children in their care. In this way, foster parents manifest God’s character and presence to children who have experienced profound evil in their lives.
The goal of foster care, particularly for children born to incarcerated women, is for children to reunify with their families. We work toward this because family is God’s idea and part of who He is; family was His plan for humanity from the beginning. So, we work towards bringing families together by providing visits between foster children and their family members and by providing support to the incarcerated moms who choose to place their children in our care.
Around the time of a mom’s release, the NHM social workers meet with her to create treatment and reunification plans. The plans include steps to attaining stable housing, employment, etc., which a mom needs to work towards to reunify their child.
Unfortunately, there are times when reunification is not possible, and we are saddened at this loss for the children and their parents. However, the goal of reunification is where we start because we believe that change and redemption are possible even in the most broken situations.
In August 2023, a new Colorado Legislature House bill was enacted in Colorado that could impact NHM’s efforts to provide foster care to children of incarcerated women. The law allows courts to consider alternative sentencing for pregnant and postpartum women who are justice-involved. As a result of this, we are currently seeing a decrease in the number of pregnant women who are in prison.
Ultimately, NHM does not know the degree to which this new bill will impact our ministry to mothers at Denver Women’s Correctional Facility (DWCF). We invite you to join us in prayer regarding how God wants NHM to do the work of furthering His Kingdom in the lives of incarcerated women in DWCF. We trust in His goodness and that He will guide us as we seek to break the cycle of incarceration.
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