Frequently Asked Questions
Following is a list of frequently asked questions regarding the children who are placed through the Safe Families Project.

1. What type of situations do the children come from?
The children come from families that are experiencing a crisis of one sort or another. These crises might include financial problems, unemployment and homelessness. In other cases, children come from families in which the parent needs time to heal physically or emotionally, or is recovering from a drug or alcohol addiction. Some children come from families in which the mother is being abused. Still other families are thrown into crisis when a parent is remanded to a correctional institution for a period of time. While these and other kinds of crises are traumatic, they also offer the opportunity for positive personal and familial transformations. Acceptance of the child into SFFC is based on whether a family is available to care for that child when placement is being requested. Some Safe Families are able to accept sibling groups and parenting/pregnant teens.

2. What ages of children does the Safe Families outreach serve?
While the Safe Family for Children Project can provide placements for newborns through adolescents (0-18), there will be a concentration on the younger and most vulnerable children (ages 0-6).

3. How long does a child usually stay with a host family?
The average length of stay is about six weeks, but placements usually last from two days to a year. The Safe Families team makes every effort at the time of placement to estimate the length of stay. Factors include the severity of the family’s crisis, the willingness and ability of the biological parent to address the issues involved in the crisis, among others.

4. What is the background of the children placed in a Safe Family?
These are normal children sometimes coming from very difficult circumstances. Each child will respond to the situation differently, depending on their personality and coping skills. Some may show little response to the circumstances in their lives, while others may be deeply affected. Please note that the children placed by Safe Families are not believed to be victims of abuse and neglect. If they were, they would instead have become wards of the state and not eligible for this project.

5. Will a child in the Safe Families project typically have a lot of behavior problems?
Possibly, but not necessarily. Trauma can influence a normally well-behaved child to behave poorly, and can influence a child with behavior problems to behave better. Some children may display behavioral problems as a result of the chaos in their lives, while others may astound us with their calm and composure. It’s impossible to predict how the child will behave.

6. What type of contact will the host family have with the biological parent?
Biological parents maintain full custody of their child, and are encouraged to participate in decisions regarding their child’s care while they address whatever issues led to the instability in their lives. Our aim is to facilitate a partnership relationship between volunteers and the biological parent(s), in which the host family becomes a kind of “extended family” for the family in crisis. We encourage host families to maintain a relationship with the family even after the placement ends, if possible.

7. Can the host family adopt the child?
The goal of the Safe Families project is to reunite children with their biological parent in a home that is more stable and healthy, in part, because of the contribution of the Safe Families intervention. Currently, 85% of all families in the program are reunitied, often in the most stable environment they’ve ever known. If, however, the biological parent loses legal custody of their child(ren), we urge host families to contact an agency other than Safe Families about the possibility of fostering or adopting.

8. What if the needed stay is longer than what the host committed to?
In this case, at the request of the host, Safe Families will transfer the child to a new host.

9. May a prospective host family specify age, language, length of stay and distance from the parents home?
Yes. Once a host family has been screened and the home certified their name will be added to a data base which will specify the age, language, length of stay and other requirements of the host family.

10. Will safe families and volunteer case coaches be trained?
Yes. Olive Crest will provide training for all those who participate in the safe families program. In addition the family will have the support of a Case Coach.

11. Will the host family receive non financial support?
While such support is not automatically provided the Safe Family model anticipates support from the safe family church both for the parent and hosts. We anticipate church members and small groups will come forward to support the hosts and parents.

12. What if my church is too small to be supportive?
We will attempt to connect you with a church or community service that has agreed to support other churches in their region.

13. What is the host family finds evidence of abuse?
Safe Families is not designed to care for children who have been subject to abuse. By law the responsibility for helping abused children rests with the government. However in the unlikely event a host discovers evidence of abuse both the case coach and case coach supervisor must be contacted immediately (the number of each will be provided to the host family). At this point those parties will handle the situation.

14. Will hosts be allowed to make schooling and medical decisions?
Yes. Hosts will be provided with authorizations allowing them to make educational and medical decisions.

15. Will host receive any protection against liability claims?
Host families receive a release of liability from sign by a parent of the hosted child and are covered by Olive crest’s insurance.

16. What is the average age of the hosted children?
The children tend to be young. The average age is 4.28 years old.

17. What if the host’s circumstances change after a placement?
If for any reason the host is not able to care for the child for the full term SFFC will arrange another placement.

18. How is Safe Families funded? Are donations needed? Safe Families is a donor-funded program. Gifts from individuals, corporations, foundations, churches and organizations provide the resources necessary to implement the Safe Families program. To make a gift, click here or contact Lois Verleur at 714-543-5437, ext. 1120 for more information. However, it is not a fully-funded initiative. The Olive Crest Board and staff believe so strongly in the healing power of the family to prevent child abuse that “unrestricted” donations seed the program. Unrestricted donations are those “to be used where the need is greatest.” Staff has been hired. Additional staff work is also assigned to the workload of existing staff. Fund raising is essential to growing and maintaining the program. Without donor support, Safe Families could not exist. Each regional program (Inland Empire, Los Angeles and Orange County) requires approximately $400,000 to implement.

19. How do I contribute?
Olive Crest has established the Safe Families “Partner’s Giving Program.” Gifts and multi-year pledges of all sizes are welcome and deeply appreciated. Contact Lois Verleur at 1-800-550-CHILD (2445), ext. 1120 or Give a gift now. The Safe Families outreach is only successful when it is embraced and adopted by the local church. Churches of all sizes are necessary to provide for vulnerable children within our communities.