Thankful Thursday: Called to Care

The next nonprofit in our community we want to spotlight this November is Called to Care! Called to Care started in Tift County serving the foster care community in 2013, but it has branched out tremendously since then. They now serve 22 counties throughout South Georgia focusing in on six key service areas, which we’ll go over in this article along with how to help.

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Foster Care

Called to Care serves the foster care community including foster parents and their new placements, biological parents in need of support, and kinship care. They do this in a variety of ways, including offering a class on foster care for those who are interested, called Foster Care 101. They also provide many tangible needs like beds, journey bags (a bag packed with clothes, undergarments, hygiene items, a Bible, and more), and other items needed by children or their families. This program serves first to prevent children from being brought into care unnecessarily by filling gaps caused from poverty (providing beds, car seats, and other needed items). It then helps with the intervention stage, once a child has been taken into care, by providing those same sorts of items to the child and their new foster family and then continuing to provide ongoing support for things like birthdays, Christmas, and other special occasions. Then, once the child is ready to transition, either back to their biological family or into an adoptive home, Called to Care works to help the home meet any needs they might have.

Adoption

In addition to help for foster care families, Called to Care also offers adoption grants for both overseas and domestic adoption in addition to education, support, and awareness.

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Missions

Called to Care was started out of a desire to care for orphans in every sense of the word, and because of this, they offer grants for groups going on missions to help with orphan care around the world.

Youth

While Called to Care offers support and meets many tangible needs for foster care children and their families, they also have many special programs and events for teens in foster care. Teens in foster care are often harder to place, less likely to be adopted, and can age out of the system with no real support system in place. Called to Care, through their monthly programs and mentoring, aims to change that.

Trauma-Informed Education

In addition to their other programs, Called to Care offers trauma informed education to anyone who serves vulnerable children—from schools to churches and more.

Case Manager Support

While it’s important to offer love and support to those in foster care and their families, Called to Care recognizes that there’s another important aspect of foster care: the caseworkers. Called to Care serves the DFCS in the areas they serve about once a month as way of showing they care and are supporting them too.

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How to Help Called to Care

During the holiday season especially, Called to Care and other local nonprofits need your help! We understand that everyone’s financial situation and the amount of time they have looks different, but there are ways everyone can help Called to Care, including:

Volunteering
Offering a financial contribution
Providing Wishlist Wednesday items (posted to their social media page every Wednesday)
Becoming a foster parent
Supporting them with Walmart purchases through Spark Good
Think of them when looking for somewhere to donate your kids clothes, shoes, etc. in good condition

Tifton Moms is a resource dedicated to the moms and families of Tifton, Georgia and beyond to help them find the information they need about events in Tifton and Southwest Georgia, resources in Tifton and beyond, educational tips, and so much more. We are passionate about all things parenting and our community, and we want to connect you to relevant resources, local businesses, can’t-miss events, and each other! Find more helpful articles at https://tiftonmoms.com/blog/.

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