Markers and milestones

Most of the UK is still in summer holiday season! Since the end of June (Scotland and Northern Ireland) or late July (England and Wales), families have been setting off on day trips to the beach, journeys across the country or holidays further afield.

My wife and I generally go on a driving holiday in June. We pack the car full and set off from Belfast on a long road trip via Scotland, England and France. Our journeys have frequently taken us to the Austrian or Swiss Alps, but we’ve also driven to the Algarve and to Norway. Part of the enjoyment of these holidays is the planning beforehand: plotting our routes and deciding what we’ll do along the way: visiting friends en route, watching tennis in Paris, cycling for a few days. It’s not just about ‘driving to Portugal’ – it’s also about how we get there.

In any long journey, it's helpful to identify key points on the route – events and activities that have value in themselves but that also serve as markers and milestones along the way.

Roadmaps for transformation

As a Home for Good Church, you’ve embarked on a journey – a journey to help your church family go deeper in their understanding and response to the needs of children in care. It’s a journey that will help keep fostering and adoption on the agenda, with the potential to bring transformation to children and families in your local community.

As we explored in our Easter update, Journeying towards transformation, no church will have the same experience: every journey is unique. However, each church can benefit from drawing up a roadmap to help direct their path and maintain momentum along the way.

Where do you want to be by the end of Year 1? What things do you want to do during Year 2? How will you be growing your impact in Year 3? What markers and milestones can you set as your engagement grows.

Plotting the journey

There are four areas to consider as you think about your partnership with Home for Good – four strands to the church engagement journey.

• Informing and Inspiring – how to help your church family understand more about fostering, adoption and God’s heart for vulnerable children. How to inspire them to play their own parts in finding and supporting homes. Will you show inspiring videos from Home for Good? Will you invite a speaker or run the Make Room course?

• Praying – how to provide opportunities in worship services and other settings for your church family to pray for care-experienced children, for families who raise and host them, for birth families, for social workers and for the work of Home for Good. Will you use the monthly Let’s Pray Resource? Will you hold a prayer gathering each year?

• Giving – considering how your church might provide financial support to Home for Good and inspire generosity among your members. Can you commit to give monthly or annually? Are you able to organise a fundraising event each year?

• Responding – what can your church and your church members do to make a practical, meaningful difference for care experienced children, for foster carers and for adoptive parents? Can you explore trauma training for members of your church? Can you provide meals or offer ironing support? Could you work with Home for Good to start a peer support group?

In all of these things, there is wisdom in committing to just a few, simple activities each year and finding a healthy balance between the aspirational and the achievable. Home for Good can help you develop your roadmap and plot your journey. Here’s a simple template to help get you started (PDF – 265KB)

Happy planning – and journey well!