The below blog from Home for Good CEO Tania Bright is reflecting on the announcement here that Home for Good and Safe Families will be merging into one charity. We would encourage you to read the blog announcement if you haven't done so already.

One of the scriptures that deeply resonates with me is Psalm 68:5-6

“A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, this is God whose dwelling is holy. God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing”.

God has a deep care for those without an advocate, those for whom life is lonelier and tougher than most. In my teenage years, I felt profound isolation and vulnerability, largely due to my own choices I found myself without a home, nor a tribe to belong to - sofa surfing, always moving to another address, fragmented relationships around me, leaving me open to exploitation.

There’s a slither of ‘loneliness’ from this period that still to this day remains, almost unhealed as it were, which I believe is God-permitted, as it allows me to stay focused and tapped into God’s heart for children and young people who feel that they just don’t fit, feel unworthy nor have anyone radically committed to their well-being.

Now decades on, I am rooted, focused, and can testify to the affection of God who has placed me into family, I’m embraced by radically committed people to whom I am committed in return. We hold each other tight, protect each other fiercely and have each others backs. Family-of-choice we call it.

It’s the experience of being without an advocate as a teenager, as well as a burning heart for seeking justice for all those ‘unheard’, that gave me the bravery to accept the call to lead Home for Good in 2020. By the time I was invited to become CEO, I’d not only my own experience as a teenager to draw on, plus a decade in the corporate world, but 17 years of community activism and caring for children and young people in local church ministry, youth work, establishing schools in deprived communities, working with refugees and also personally caring for children and young people from and in the care system.

I started a Community Home in Peckham 15 years ago, along with two best friends, caring for homeless teenagers, the early days of Supported Lodgings. It was chaos and joy in equal measure. As a community we loved deeply, laughed often and felt the pain of injustices young people were facing on a daily basis. I then went onto foster, and Mack and Charlie arrived aged 7 days old and 13 months respectively, who I then went on to adopt. They are now 11 and 12 and are two of the most resilient, dynamic, joyous, forthright young men I know. As a family we navigate both theirs and my neurodiversity and intentionally live our lives immersed in a local and national tribe, as shared, our family-of choice. We belong.

‘Belonging’ is not a by word for us as a family, but a mantra. This is really important. Home for Good’s belief that every child deserves a nurturing, safe and stable home and a tribe to belong to is fundamental to how we inspire and equip the church and individuals and couples within it.

Equally, what Safe Families have boldly and prophetically invited the Church to embrace, is that belonging is the foundation for well-being. Belonging is the antidote to loneliness, the way by which we grow as humans, and the way we can learn to trust again. Families of all persuasions are built through belonging.

Safe Families belief is that every family and child within it deserves to be given every opportunity to flourish, to be heard, to be supported in the isolation and overwhelm - with a goal to prevent children going into care. This struck me as pivotal to how the Church cared ‘at large’, meeting the ‘life cycle’ needs of children.

Because of these shared goals and beliefs, Home for Good and Safe Families have already been working closely together for many years. This has looked different at different times, but in the last couple of years, this collaborations has gone from strength to strength and we see this merger as a natural next step for the partnership.

Together, therefore, we felt we can focus on both ‘top of the cliff’ (prevention at an early stage before families hit crisis point) and ‘bottom of the cliff’ (short, mid, long term intervention through fostering, adoption and supported lodgings) both preventing children going into care and yet, when sadly they do and still yet will, we will find outstanding homes and a tribe for them to be loved within.

Together, we will be able to harness the power of circular contribution from those we journey with i.e a Safe Families volunteer could also become a registered foster carer if it supports the needs of the children being supported, or a volunteer could support an adoptive family if they need time bound support, or a Supported Lodgings Host also become a volunteer to support their siblings etc. This also affords us the opportunity to create multiple training and resourcing opportunities that address this circular contribution both for the Church and individuals.

The way Home for Good will be felt and experienced continues for the thousands we journey with, just as it will be with Safe Families - but this opportunity allows us the privilege to serve Church, children and families with greater impact than we can do individually as organisations. Retaining our brands will still evidence the unique roles we carry but with a merged heart response and practical fusing of ‘services’ to support this mission, we can do so much more.

We want to do this journey with you, and I want to hear your thoughts, your prayers and your questions for us as we take these bold steps forward. Please send them to me at [email protected]

Find out more about Safe Families by visiting their website or reading a note from CEO Kat Osborn here.

If you would like to partner with us as we go forward with this exciting new vision, we would love to hear from you.

Pray, Explore, Give