Foster Care Support for Churches in San Antonio & Surrounding Areas
You’re carrying a burden for children and families in foster care, and you need someone to walk with you as you help your church see the need, make the case to leadership, and stay supported once the door opens.
That is exactly what the Alliance does.
YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO HAS FELT THIS
Then 100 people showed up.
For one retired teacher in San Antonio, knowing that children had no one to say yes to them while she worshiped in a vibrant, large church kept her up at night and down on her knees.
Sharee prayed for eight years. Leadership was not ready. No program existed. No one had given her permission. So she did what she could with what she had: she connected with foster families already in her church, served them quietly through prayer and meals and encouragement, and refused to let the need fade from view.
- Obedience to the call came before permission.
In 2025, her prayers were answered. A sermon on God’s heart for children and families in foster care was preached. An informational meeting followed. One hundred individuals and families stepped forward. From that meeting, an Alliance Prevention Network response team launched, three families began fostering, and a family stepped up as a mentor family for a young adult aging out of care.
What began with one woman’s faithful persistence became a church serving families.
"The foster care crisis is not due to a lack of programs. It is a lack of people seeing and staying."
If you are reading this page, you are probably a lot like Sharee. You see something your church has not yet fully seen. You carry a weight that is hard to put down. And you wonder if there is a way to turn what you are feeling into something that actually moves.
- There is. And you do not have to figure it out alone.
The Crisis in Our Community
Every day in our region, children enter foster care because families have reached a breaking point. The numbers matter, but they are not the whole story.
Not because they stopped caring.
Because too many were trying to do this alone.
The Crisis Begins Before Foster Care
Before foster care becomes part of the story, many families are already in crisis. Abuse, neglect, poverty, isolation, and lack of support create pressure that too often leads to removal.
The Burden Feels Personal
You see the gap between what God cares about and what your church has been able to respond to so far. You may have a burden. You may even have a vision. But you may not have the authority, language, or path to move it forward alone.
The Church Has a Role
The Church was made to move toward vulnerable children and families. You are not wrong for feeling the weight of this. And you are not wrong for believing your church could be part of the response.
THE ALLIANCE WALKS WITH YOU
We know what it is like to see a need your church has not fully seen yet.
You may have been praying, serving quietly, supporting families, or wondering what it would look like if your church responded in a more sustained way.
You are not alone in that.
And you do not have to keep carrying it alone.
When you connect with a Church Engagement Specialist, you get a real person who understands this work and knows how to help someone in your position take a next step.
Your Specialist will help you:
- Clarify what you are carrying
- Understand what your church may already be doing
- Think through what fits your church’s size, season, and capacity
- Prepare for conversations with leadership
- Take the next step without being left alone afterward
Built Through Ongoing Relationship
What Happens When You Reach Out
You do not need a plan, a title, or your church leadership’s buy-in before you contact us. Wherever you are in that journey, the Alliance will meet you there.
1. Reach Out
Fill out the form and a Church Engagement Specialist will follow up personally.
The first conversation is just that: a conversation. No pitch. No pressure. No minimum commitment. Just someone who wants to understand what you are carrying and what you are hoping for.
2. Build a Path Together
Your Specialist gets to know you, your church, and your season.
Every church is different. Size, location, capacity, leadership readiness, and congregation makeup all matter. We do not start with a template. We start by listening.
Together, we identify a next step that fits. That may be a conversation with your pastor, an information meeting at your church, or another step entirely.
3. Step In With Support
When your church is ready to move, you will not be doing it alone.
Your Specialist walks with you through the early steps and stays with you as the work grows. The Alliance does not create programs and leave. We build relationships and stay in them.
Where Churches Can Engage Along the River
The foster care crisis touches families before, during, and beyond foster care.
Some families need support before removal becomes necessary. Some children and caregivers need stability while foster care is part of their story. Some young adults need lasting relationships after they age out of the system.
Churches across San Antonio and surrounding areas are already showing up at each point. Your church can too.
Keep families together before removal becomes necessary.
Alliance Prevention Network (APN)
Trained church response teams meet practical needs for biological and kinship families under pressure. A refrigerator. A crib. A heater. A car repair. Tangible support opens the door to relationship.
Prevention starts with presence.
2025: 84% of APN requests met. $96,880 in direct assistance. 520 children in kinship families supported.
Support the people holding the system together.
Caring for Caseworkers
Churches provide meals, supplies, and encouragement to caseworkers who are carrying heavy caseloads and difficult decisions. Supporting caseworkers helps strengthen the network around children and families.
2025: 806 caseworkers supported across the region.
Learn more about Caring for Caseworkers
Give families the dignity of choosing.
KinMart and JingleMart
Church teams help create events where kinship and foster families can choose school supplies and Christmas gifts with dignity. Families are not handed generic donations. They are welcomed, seen, and given room to choose what their children need.
2025: 682 children served through KinMart. 1,034 children across 327 families served through JingleMart.
Make sure no young adult ages out alone.
Don’t Go Alone (DGA)
Mentor families walk alongside young adults ages 18 to 24 who have aged out of foster care. Young adults choose their own mentor family, and the match is only the beginning.
Programs end. People stay.
2025: 19 young adults matched with mentor families.
Through our experiences, we’ve discovered which organizations are essential in providing support and resources to children, youth and families impacted by the foster care system.
Our goal with this guide is to help you find the right fit for your passion and skill set so that you can make a meaningful impact in the lives of children and families in need.
Who Walks With You
Every Church Engagement Specialist on the Alliance team brings personal experience with foster care, adoption, kinship care, or church engagement in this space.
They are not program managers handing you a template. They are people who have sat with the complexity, grief, cost, and hope of this work.
They know what it costs to say yes.
And they know how to help someone like you take a next step that can actually hold.
Katie Devine
Church Engagement Specialist
No. Many people begin with a burden before they have a plan or formal approval. Staff support is helpful when the time comes to move forward, but you do not need full leadership buy-in to start a conversation.
There is no cost to start a conversation or partner with the Alliance. If a specific opportunity involves a real cost, we will talk through that clearly before your church is asked to commit.
No. Some churches begin by supporting one foster, adoptive, or kinship family already in their congregation. Others begin through APN, babysitting, Caring for Caseworkers, KinMart, JingleMart, or mentoring young adults through Don’t Go Alone.
The goal is not to copy another church. The goal is to find a faithful next step your church can sustain.
That is exactly why this work begins with discernment. The Alliance helps your church consider your people, capacity, season, and existing rhythms before choosing a next step.
Relational rhythms are simple, repeatable ways your church stays connected over time. That may look like monthly check-ins, meals, prayer, childcare, practical support, invitations, or ongoing encouragement for a family, caseworker, or young adult.
A pastor, ministry leader, foster parent, adoptive parent, kinship caregiver, volunteer, or concerned church member can reach out. You do not need to be the final decision-maker to begin exploring what might be possible.
A Church Engagement Specialist will listen first. They will help you clarify what you are carrying, understand what your church may already be doing, and think through a next step that fits your church’s size, season, and capacity.
The Alliance does not hand churches a template and walk away. Your Church Engagement Specialist walks with you through the early steps, helps you communicate clearly, and stays connected as the work grows.
No. Churches of different sizes can engage in different ways. A smaller church may take one practical step. A larger church may build a team over time. Both can matter.
Start by filling out the form. A Church Engagement Specialist will follow up personally within three business days for a real conversation with no pressure and no pitch.
Connect with an Alliance Engagement Specialist
Whether this burden is new or something you have carried for years, we would be glad to walk with you. Fill out the form, and a Church Engagement Specialist will reach out personally within three business days for a real conversation with no pressure and no pitch.
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