Episode Description
What if the fastest way to shrink the foster care system is to prevent entries in the first place? We unpack Florida’s results-driven approach that invited churches and nonprofits into a formal partnership with state agencies—without crossing constitutional lines—and turned compassion into measurable change. By treating faith communities as essential partners in prevention, crisis care, and reunification, Florida built real-time bridges between caseworkers and congregations and saw foster care numbers drop dramatically.
We walk through the simple moves that changed the tone and the outcomes: 40,000 thank-you notes acknowledging existing service, a “red phone” straight into the governor’s office for pastors and ministry leaders, and a tech platform that alerts nearby churches when a caseworker logs a family’s urgent need. Often, the missing piece keeping a child safe at home was as basic as a bed. When churches delivered that bed, they built relationships that stabilized families long after the request was met.
The results speak for themselves: 2,200 churches collaborating statewide, a 34–40% reduction in foster care population from roughly 23,332 to under 15,000, and an estimated $248 million in annual taxpayer savings. More important, thousands of children avoided the trauma of removal because support arrived upstream. We also share a step-by-step playbook any state can adapt: map the faith landscape, extend an authentic invitation, centralize communication for faith leaders, deploy a needs-matching tool like CarePortal, and offer multiple on-ramps for congregations to serve within legal and ethical guardrails.
If you care about child welfare reform, faith-based community impact, and practical policy that works, this conversation offers both the vision and the toolkit. Subscribe, share with a policymaker or pastor, and leave a review with your state—what’s the first step you’d take to build this bridge where you live?