Chosen is proud to announce our partnership with MyFloridaMyFamily to provide trauma-informed counseling to foster and adoptive families in the State of Florida. This partnership will allow us to continue extending our reach, and meeting families where they are to heal hurting children. We are honored to be a part of this initiative.
Below, please find the press release detailing this partnership:
Chosen, For Others selected to serve MyFloridaMyFamily to help tackle Florida’s child welfare crisis
Chosen, a partner of For Others, will provide trauma informed counseling to foster and adoptive families in the State of Florida through the MyFloridaMyFamily, an online hub of resources that includes the Florida’s Foster Information Hotline that was established to connect Florida families in need to local faith institutions and community organizations eager to help.
“MyFloridaMyFamily is an innovative program that reaches into stricken communities and homes, connecting them to faith-based institutions where congregants stand ready to serve and help,” said Chosen CEO Jenni Lord. “The State of Florida is definitely taking a lead in the U.S. in developing a sound initiative that can make the biggest difference in a child’s life, and we are honored to be a part of it.”
Currently, there are 23,000 children in out-of-home care in Florida, the fourth highest rate in the nation behind California, Texas and New York.
MyFloridaMyFamily was established in August in partnership with the Governor’s Faith and Community Based Initiative and the Department of Children and Families. The organization tapped For Others as a resource for the project. CHOSEN is 1 of 5 non-profit partner organizations that make up For Others, which was founded in 2018 by American contemporary Christian music singer-songwriter Chris Tomlin and his wife Lauren to reverse the foster care crisis in the United States.
“For Others has gathered best-practice organizations already fighting the child welfare crisis,” said For Others Board Member Erik Dellenback, who also serves as Florida’s Faith and Community Based Liaison to the Governor. “These organizations are working together in a hub to provide the necessary resources for vulnerable families to help them succeed in building a strong family.”
According to the Children’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, in 2017 there were an estimated 442,000 children in foster care; 32 percent were in a relative’s home and 42 percent were in nonrelative foster family homes.
“Chosen serves a critical need in helping children heal from loss and trauma, but we are one part of the whole,” said Lord. “We are humbled to join together and work with the the State of Florida and the MyFloridaMyFamily to develop the most effective model in addressing the deepest needs of our country’s most vulnerable.”
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About Chosen
Chosen’s mission is to help children heal from trauma by strengthening families. We serve foster, adoptive, kinship, and reunified families who have been impacted by the child welfare system.
For Others
Angel Armies, founded by Chris and Lauren Tomlin, works to bring ministry organizations and the Church together to help solve issues related to vulnerable youth and families in the United States. Just as music gives a voice for worship, Angel Armies wants to be a Voice for the Vulnerable. To learn more, visit forothers.com/.
