Mothers’ Day 2023 Resources

Mothers’ Day is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate all those in ‘mother’ roles, and we at Home for Good know that such roles reach beyond biology and shared last names. This and every Mothers’ Day, we want to celebrate, acknowledge and thank the huge array of parenting and caring roles that impact the lives of children and young people and affirm all those who are making a difference, while also inviting communities to consider what their part could be in ensuring that every child is welcomed into a home and community who will care for and support them.

This year, we are really excited by the opportunity Mothering Sunday offers us to share information about the Home for Good Foundations course. Foundations is an online course for anyone who wants to find out more about fostering, adoption or supported lodgings for teenagers. This might be because you’re interested in growing your family in this way, or because you’d love to gain a better understanding in order to support others. Wherever you find yourself on your journey, we believe that the Foundations course will equip you to better understand the experiences of children and young people, and enable you to make well-informed decisions.

Session one of the Foundations course is named ‘What can I bring?’ and the aim of the session is to begin to consider what unique role we each have to plan in caring for children and young people with care experience. A large part of the session is dedicated to a Bible study which looks at the story of Moses, unpacking the roles of each of the five women involved in his birth and early life; the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, Moses’ mother, Jochebed, his sister, Miriam, and Pharoah’s daughter. Each of these women were vitally important, each mattered enormously and each played an important role in ensuring Moses’ survival.

This year, we’re delighted to be able to offer you two videos to share with your church community, perhaps before, during or after your service on Sunday 19 March.

The first is a short Mothers’ Day message from Home for Good, in which we share some thoughts about why this day can be wonderful for so many of us, but also complex, complicated or even painful for some. We’ll share about the urgent need that exists today to find more homes for children and young people in care, and we’ll invite the viewers to consider joining us for an online Foundations course this year to learn more about fostering, adoption and supported lodgings for teenagers.

The second video is a slightly longer reflection from session one of the Foundations course, which unpacks the stories of these women in the first few chapters of Exodus in greater depth. A sermonette of sorts, this longer video (5-7 mins) made up of both to-camera speaking and animation could be shown in church services or could be used to inspire a sermon delivered live.

(Download the subtitled versions here and here)

We’d love you to take the opportunity to share about the Home for Good Foundations course among your church family this year. We’ve created this slide for you to use if that’s helpful for you, which contains all the information they need to sign up for a course.

In addition to this, we have, as always, compiled some ideas for your service, which we really hope will help to create a space where everyone feels welcome, however they feel on Mothering Sunday, and we hope it inspires your community to think about the parts that each of us can play to welcome, care for and encourage care-experienced children and young people in our communities.

If you would like a Home for Good speaker to visit your church on Mothering Sunday, please click here and complete our ‘book a speaker’ form.

It is our delight to offer our resources free of charge, but as a charity we appreciate your donations to help cover our costs and enable us to find homes for more children and young people. Please consider donating or taking up a special offering for Home for Good this Mothering Sunday.

Thank you for choosing to support Home for Good in this way. We’re excited at the thought that this March, many individuals and families from church communities right across the UK might be inspired to take their first step towards fostering, adoption or offering supported lodgings – and that ultimately, homes will be found for children and young people who are waiting.

Together we truly can find a home for every child who needs one.