Love them or hate them, numbers don’t lie.
When we talk about the amount of children in Foster Care in the state of Texas, close to 30,000, we can be quickly overwhelmed. How could we ever begin to find a home for 30,000 children? I can imagine the disciples felt the same way when Jesus asked them to feed the 5,000. Ultimately they decided to be obedient to what he was asking for and before they knew it...they had left-overs.
There is a great lesson to be learned here, just obey, just do the work and success will follow. Instead of looking at the 30,000 children in foster care across Texas, let's look at just the 299 that are from the Permian Basin. Where are they from? Where are they now? What can we do about it?
The 299 reported by DFPS that are from the Permian Basin come from mainly Ector, Midland, Howard and Ward counties.
Sadly many of these children that are removed are placed in homes and institutions that are well outside of our 30 county region. The table below shows how likely our children are to become placed in their own county and in the region. If you have followed this topic for a while it should not come to you as a surprise that right at 62% of the children are placed outside of our region and just under 90% of the children are placed outside of their home county.
While we had our biggest month ever, we like to give the credit where it is deserved. We are thankful for all the caseworkers and social workers that are the most important human connection these kids have. We are grateful for local and state leadership that allows us to help. For the space we rent from the West family and the consistent partnership with Fostering Restoration Ministries. We could not do this without our consistent local support from what we call “The Network”, the body of churches, foundations, and community members that step up and serve through the various projects and to keep our shelves stocked.
Of course we could not do this without your financial support. Would you consider making a one time or monthly donation to The Attic. All donations are tax deductible and stay right here in the Permian Basin.