A Season of Change - October 2011
Many of us welcome the changing sights and smells of the autumn season. The array of beautiful fall colors displays God’s amazing artistry and workmanship. At ECFA, we have gone through a change of seasons as well, as our long standing state-funded foster care program has come to an end. Perhaps a brief history will help to put this change into perspective. The agency first opened its doors in downtown Chicago in May 1950. From the onset, ECFA had 17 foster children in care. At that time, most of these kids came from Cook County or were privately placed with us by their parents. In 1965, the Department of Children and Family Services came into existence making child welfare a statewide system in Illinois.
Right from the beginning, DCFS asked us to take abused, neglected, and abandoned children into our care. We were happy to assist the State Department by placing these children into evangelical Christian homes. ECFA continued to contract with DCFS on an annual basis for the following 46 years with the understanding that we would be allowed to recruit married and single evangelical parents for our foster care program while referring non-evangelical individuals to other agencies.
Early this year, the Illinois General Assembly passed the Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act, which went into effect on June 1st. At that time, DCFS informed us that to continue contracting with them in placing state wards into our foster care program would require licensing non-evangelical individuals and families, including civil union couples. We informed DCFS that we strongly desire to continue caring for state wards. However, we will uphold our policy and practice to carry out the mission of ECFA with only evangelical staff and board members, and foster and adoptive families.
On September 7th, DCFS informed us that they would no longer contract with ECFA for foster care services. The 242 children that we had in care were transitioned to two other child welfare agencies on September 30th. While we were greatly disappointed and disagreed with DCFS’s decision, we worked cooperatively with Children’s Home & Aid Society of Illinois and the Youth Service Bureau of the Illinois Valley to ensure a smooth transition for all concerned. Thankfully, all of our children remained with their foster families and most caseworkers transferred to the other agencies and maintained their caseloads.
Moving forward, we are continuing our pro-life ministry of providing pregnancy support services, domestic and international adoption, intact family services, individual and family counseling, and safe families (private foster care) services. Our mission includes placing children in evangelical Christian homes and offering social services from a Biblical perspective. Most of our programs are partially or completely dependent on private donations. There are many volunteer opportunities for service at our agency as well, and we greatly appreciate your ongoing prayers and gifts. We sincerely hope that you will continue to support the work and ministry of ECFA in the years to come.