Brought to Oklahoma by It’s My Community Initiative, Safe Families Oklahoma provides support to an innovative collaboration of area churches, volunteers, non-profit organizations, business leaders, and government partners, all focused on ensuring that struggling parents have adequate options for meeting their children’s needs for a short period of time.
Area churches recruit volunteer Host Families to open their homes to children whose parents are experiencing a short-term emergency or crisis. These families allow parents relief from some of their parenting responsibilities while they work through problems or achieve a short term goal. A child’s parents retain custody, but a guardianship agreement between them and their Host Family ensures that the volunteer family can meet the needs of a child in their care. The expectation by both families is that the children will be reunited with their parents as soon as possible.