Love Never Fails

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Love Never Fails
What is the ABC Initiative? Agape Black Children
and Churches Initiative, inspired by the One
Church One Child program which has placed 120,000
children in adoptive homes. ABC Initiative
Program Goals 1. Increase awareness about the
need for foster and adoptive homes - In the
Black community - In the general community,
with an emphasis on the needs of Black
children 2. Take action by training, licensing,
certifying, supporting and celebrating resource
families and foster family ministries 3. Retain
resource families through fellowship events and
through effective advocacy with Arizonas
Department of Economic Security and Maricopa
Countys Superior Court
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Love Never Fails

• Fost/Adopt - How Arizonas System Works
• Resource families are trained and licensed (30
  hours)
• Call to child abuse report line
• Investigation of allegation
• Child safety evaluated
• Child moved to a foster home
• Caseworker assigned to work with birth family
  and child

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Love Never Fails

• Basic Requirements for
• Resource (Foster and Adoptive) Parents
• Be at least 21 years of age
• May be single or married
• Home must pass a basic life-safety inspection
• Must have access to transportation
• Must have a telephone or similar means of
  communication

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Love Never Fails

• Additional Requirements
• Foster or Adoptive (Resource) Parents
• Dedication and devotion
• Dealing with many people
• Responding to a childs challenging needs
• Making a difference in a childs life

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Love Never Fails
Who Are the Kids in Foster Care?
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Love Never Fails
Who Are the Kids in Foster Care?
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Love Never Fails
Who Are the Kids in Foster Care?
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Love Never Fails
Maricopa County Zip Codes with Most Pressing
Need for Resource (Foster and Adoptive)
Parents 85014, 85225, 85040, 85041, 85029,
85204, 85021, 85033, 85051, 85015, 85323,
85009, 85017, 85301, 85201 If your home is in
one of these zip codes, please call Agape today
to find out how you can make a difference!
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Love Never Fails

• Criteria for Mutual Selection
• Successful Foster and Adoptive Parents
• Must Be Able To..
• Know Your Own Family - Assess your individual and
  family strengths and needs build on strengths
  and meet needs
• Communicate Effectively Use and develop
  communication skills needed to foster or adopt

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Love Never Fails

• Criteria for Mutual Selection
• Know the Children Identify the strengths and
  needs of children and youth who have been abused,
  neglected, abandoned, or emotionally maltreated
• Build Strengths Meet Needs Build on strengths
  and meet needs of children and youth who are
  placed with you

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Love Never Fails

• Criteria for Mutual Selection
• Work in Partnership Develop partnerships with
  children, birth families, the agency, and the
  community to develop and carry out plans for
  permanency
• Be Loss Attachment Experts Help children
  develop skills to manage loss and attachment

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Love Never Fails

• Criteria for Mutual Selection
• Manage Behaviors Help children manage behaviors
• Build Connections Help children maintain and
  develop relationships that keep them connected to
  their pasts

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Love Never Fails

• Criteria for Mutual Selection
• Build Self-Esteem Help children build on
  positive self-concept and positive family,
  cultural and racial identity
• Assure Health and Safety Provide a healthy and
  safe environment for children and youth and keep
  them free from harm

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Love Never Fails

• Criteria for Mutual Selection
• Assess Impact Assess the ways fostering and/or
  adoptive will affect your family
• Make an Informed Decision Make an informed
  decision to foster or adopt

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Love Never Fails

• Next Steps for Families
• Participate in an orientation meeting
• Select a licensing or certification agency
• Begin training classes
• Agapes next classes begin soon!

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Love Never Fails
Next Steps for Families EVERYONE IS NOT READY TO
BECOME A FOSTER OR ADOPTIVE PARENT. YOU CAN
STILL SUPPORT THE FAMILIES THAT ARE CLOSE TO
HOME! Find out more about the families at risk
in your zip code and how you can help them.
Instead of fostering or adopting, you may decide
to
Be a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA).
CASAs are volunteers from the community who visit
assigned foster children and advocate for their
best interests inside and outside of the
courtroom. Participate on the Foster Care Review
Board (FCRB). These volunteers review the
progress of children in the foster care system
toward achieving a permanent home and advise the
juvenile court on this progress. Be an advocate.
The Children's Action Alliance (CAA) is a strong
and independent voice for Arizona's children.
Join CAA's advocacy network to stay up to date on
policy issues that make a difference to the
well-being of children in and out of the foster
care system. Be a donor. A donation to the
Arizona Friends of Foster Children Foundation
(AFFCF) helps provide opportunities for foster
children that include college scholarships,
tutoring, athletic memberships and equipment,
school activities and more.
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Love Never Fails

• Pure and undefiled religion before God and the
  Father is this to visit orphans and widows in
  their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from
  the world.
• James 127
• Agape Adoption Agency of Arizona, Inc. is a
  501(c)3 Christian Agency that provides
• Adoption Certification ? Foster Care Licensure ?
  Parenting Classes
• Kinship Advocacy ? Birth Parent Services
• For more information, please contact us at
• Phone [phone] Fax [phone]
• www.agapeaz.org