1HOPE for Kids
IMAGINE a childhood filled with abuse, neglect, loss
of control and life-changing trauma. Imagine being
removed from your home, separated from your parents
or your siblings—possibly forever. If you’re the average
foster kid in Texas, you will bounce from five to six
homes before returning to your parents, being adopted,
or aging out of care.
NOW IMAGINE how, in your short
life, you might feel abandoned by a
society that treats you like a commodity.
Imagine how you might have lost
hope, and how your view of the world
and God might have changed and
hardened. This is the current reality of
thousands of children in San Antonio.
But God is intervening.
Our country's attention turned
especially to these children in May,
since National Foster Care Month was
proclaimed in 1988. In our city, a
nonprofit agency called 1HOPE for Kids
addresses the modern-day orphan
crisis. Its mission is to love and provide
safe homes for every foster child in our
community.
According to the Texas DFPS 2018
Data Book, every day in Bexar County,
five to seven children will be removed
from unstable or dangerous home
situations, and three of these children
will leave Bexar County because of a
lack of local foster homes. 1HOPE is
restoring families with its unique faithbased
approaches. The team at 1HOPE
places kids in God-centered homes and
partners with area churches. Its focus:
the absolute best for every child.
1HOPE, one of the two largest
child-placement agencies in Bexar
County, was founded in 2014 by a group
of Christians who wanted a foster
agency to recommend to their congregations.
Since its first foster placement
in 2015, 1HOPE has trained more than
800 people and placed nearly 400 kids
in 165 loving homes. 1HOPE supports
children from birth to 17 years old, as
well as those who have aged out of care
but have chosen to remain with a
family for additional structure and
support.
While foster care is designed to be
temporary with the hope that every child
will return to their biological families,
adoptions occur when situations do not
improve, or when a child can’t return to
their parents’ or a relatives’ home.
Almost one third of all 1HOPE “fosteradopt”
parents (those who have been
licensed to foster and adopt) have ended
up adopting: 86 so far.
1HOPE provides the foster trifecta.
BY INEZ KIRCHNER
B E A CON W R I T E R
4 www.saBeacon.com May / June 2019