For Churches
Every congregation has families that are either already fostering, or families who could be. Here's how your church can support the first group and raise up the second — without starting from scratch.
Haven 686's long-term mission is to mobilize local churches to engage foster care — helping congregations provide new foster homes for children who need one, and helping churches better support the families already fostering in their pews right now.
But we don't have to build that from scratch. Promise686 has been doing exactly this since 2007, and their model has been refined, studied, and proven across thousands of churches nationwide.
So our answer is simple: visit promise686.org, reach out to their team, and see how they can help your church fulfill God's call to care for "the least of these" in your own community.
Visit Promise686 →Two Ways In
Church engagement in foster care isn't one thing — it's two, and most churches only think about the second one. Before you focus on recruiting new foster parents, ask who in your congregation is already fostering, and whether they feel supported or alone.
Isolation is one of the biggest reasons foster parents quit. A church that shows up practically for the families already in the trenches does more for foster care in its community than a recruitment campaign ever will — and it makes room for more families to say yes when they see it's sustainable.
Find out which families are already fostering, then ask what they need. Promise686 calls this a Care Community — a team of 5–8 volunteers providing meals, childcare, household help, and mentoring, held together by prayer.
Some in your congregation are being called to foster and don't know where to start. Encourage them prayerfully — point them to what to consider before opening their home, and make sure a Care Community is ready before they say yes.
Without a Care Community
National attrition research shows 30–50% of foster families quit within their first year — most citing isolation and lack of support, not the children themselves.
With a Promise686 Care Community
Based on Promise686's internal tracking of 172 families recruited through partner churches between 2013–2018, each supported by a traditional Care Community.
The 60% national figure is our own estimate derived from attrition research — no child welfare agency publishes a direct "percent still fostering" statistic, so this isn't a one-to-one comparison with Promise686's number. Promise686's 96% figure comes from their internal program tracking, not an independent or peer-reviewed study; those same families also maintained a 90% continuation rate into a second year, a figure with no national equivalent to compare it against. Separately, a peer-reviewed Georgia study found Promise686-supported families averaged fewer placement moves (2.15 vs. 2.77 statewide) and fewer removals from care (1.10 vs. 1.16 statewide) — evidence that church-based support measurably improves stability for kids.
Bear one another's burdens,
and so fulfill the law of Christ.
— Galatians 6:2