As a Host Family, you provide safe, loving care for a child while encouraging their parents through life’s challenges. Your home becomes a bridge to hope, healing, and lasting community. It is a sacred opportunity to stand in the gap for children and families with compassion and faith.
Becoming a Host Family is a step of faith, love, and hospitality. The journey begins when a hosting need is shared by our Support Line Coordinator. Each Host Family can decide whether they have the capacity and availability to accept the request.
If a family says yes, a volunteer Family Coach facilitates an intake meeting to walk through the arrangement, ensuring everyone is supported and ready. Host Families are equipped with meals, clothing, car seats, and other available resources to help meet practical needs.
Throughout the hosting, the Family Coach stays in regular communication with both the Host Family and the parent, offering guidance and encouragement. As the arrangement unfolds, Host Families often not only care for the child – relationships also form with the parents, looking for ways to reflect the love of Jesus.
When stability goals are met, the Family Coach helps facilitate reunification. And in many cases, the connection does not end there. Host Families often remain involved, continuing to walk alongside the families they’ve come to know and love.
Host Family Spotlight
When Carly’s family first hosted Amara* , she was one-year-old who couldn’t yet walk or talk. What began as a one-week hosting turned into eight months of shared life, laughter, and deep connection—not just with Amara, but with her mom, Star*. As Star worked toward her goals, the Bickels provided a safe, loving home and a “village” that has grown into lasting friendship. Hosting is more than opening your home—it’s opening your heart to be part of a family’s story, reflecting the love of Christ so no one has to face life alone.
“We have our parents or our siblings, but we love that we can be her village..."
Carly, Host Mom