Trulight’s mission is to care for the hurting children of the world. A lot of what we do is to place children in foster care with families that we have trained to care for their basic needs while also helping them heal from trauma.
Sometimes a child is put into foster care, but then placed with a family member: grandma, grandpa, aunt, uncle, cousins or close family friends. This is called a Kinship or Fictive Kin Placement.
Sometimes a child’s biological parents are asked by the courts to complete trauma training in order to avoid having their child(ren) placed into foster care.
At TruLight127 Ministries, we want to support families in any way we can. We provide support to both kinship foster placements as well as extensive trauma-informed education to biological parents.
Kinship Placement
For generations, extended families have played significant roles in rearing children when parents are having a difficult time. This is called Kinship Care by Child Protective Services (CPS). These are relatives and other people who the child or family have a significant relationship can often provide children with stability when they can’t live with their birth parents.
Kinship caregivers are not given the same kind of support that foster families are given. They are often left struggling for resources. We want to support that family as much as we can so that the children placed there can stay in a stable family environment. We provide resources, trainings, and often license them so that they can receive the support that they need.
What Are the Benefits of Kinship Care?
- Provides love and care in a familiar setting;
- Provides parents with a sense of hope that children will remain connected to their birth families;
- Enables children to live with people they know and trust;
- Reinforces a child’s sense of cultural identity and positive self-esteem;
- Helps a child make and sustain extended family connections;
- Continues lifelong family traditions and memories;
- Supports the child in building healthy relationships within the family;
- Supports the child’s need for safety and well-being; and
- Creates a sense of stability in the life of a child.
Biological Family Support
Trauma happens at different levels. Trauma is NOT one-size-fits-all.
It is the job of child protection officials — caseworkers, lawyers, judges — together to make that hard judgement call of whether to separate a family for the safety of the children.
For those families who may find themselves in a danger zone or have been court-ordered to undergo trauma-based parent training, TruLight127 can help.
Trauma Training for Parents in San Antonio
TruLight127 Ministries offers an extensive Trauma Informed Care and TBRI training for biological families and kinship foster placements. Click the button below to learn about the subjects covered through this course.
The program for biological parents and kinship caregivers is six weeks long and includes follow up case management services to graduates of this training course.
Click the button to learn more!