Supporting Families - March 24

Thursday 21st March 2024 - The CAB network gathered for an evening at One Church Gloucester Place. The theme for this term's meeting was Family Support and we heard from Sam Corry of One Church and our special guests, the Brighton and Hove City Council Fostering Team.

Sam shared about the remarkable 'Chomp' holiday project which has faithfully served children on free school meals across the city for several years. As funding cuts have hit, Chomp has had to scale back, but the Sam and the team at one church are trusting God as they move with the seasons. Here is an opportunity for Christians across the city to stand in prayer, partnership and giving, and we encourage anyone interested to contact sam@onechurchbrighton.org to discuss further.

CAB Administrator, Tim Jones, introduced the theme of supporting families through fostering and adoption, inviting Emmanuel Church's family support lead Neve Lawther to share something of her family-of-origin's journey in both fostering and adoption. Extraordinarily, the church which Neve grew up in has a congregation where some 80% are involved in fostering and adoption in one way or another, both directly and through support and respite work. Neve’s experiences helpfully highlighted how all members of the church can play a part in building a culture of welcome for children and supporting families who open their lives and homes in this way.

Cathy Seiderer and her team from Brighton and Hove City Council have been in conversation with us for the past few months, very excited to engage and reach out to the Christians of our city to partner in meeting the needs of children for supportive families. Cathy gave a presentation and noted that fostering and adoption are grounded in a Christian ethic. She called upon the churches directly to connect with the council and introduced their new church outreach liaison Brenda who is looking to proactively serve our congregations with information and pathways. We were also joined by Billy-Jo O'Leary of Home for Good and Nick Harris of Safe Families who have been instrumental in making these connections between the statutory services and the churches.

We are so pleased that the council are seeking out the Christians of our city to take a lead in supporting families, and we invite all of you to begin the conversation about how your church might be involved by filling in this contact form