News from Northern Ireland

Find out how we are finding homes for children in Northern Ireland

Roger Cooke and Tash McBride share updates, encouragements, and prayer points related to Home for Good’s work across Northern Ireland.

Summer events and festivals

The last few months have seen Tash and Roger out and about at events, summer conferences, and festivals – meeting people and sharing something of Home for Good’s work and vision.

Our 2024 roadshow series concluded with three events in June – in Belfast, Rostrevor, and Ballynahinch. We had some really fruitful conversations with individuals and couples who are keen to explore opening up their homes. But we also loved connecting with existing foster carers, adoptive parents, and church leaders who are already on this journey and who are keen to be part of a wider movement of change.

Tash flew the Home for Good flag at Wondrous (Elim Ireland conference) and is also part of a team from Home for Good and Safe Families that is exploring a partnership with ‘The Send’. Tash attended The Send event in London’s Wembley Arena in July – the first in a series of arena tours that will also see events in Belfast and Dublin in 2025.

At the beginning of August, we hosted a seminar at New Horizon alongside David Templeton, our colleague from Safe Families. You can listen to a recording of the seminar on Soundcloud: ‘Let the children come: caring well for children and young people in our communities.’

It’s been a joy and privilege to connect with hundreds of people over these past few months, hearing their stories, answering their questions, and we pray, encouraging them to take their next steps along the way.

Collaborating for change

One of our NI Advisory Group members, David Smyth, leads the work of Evangelical Alliance in Northern Ireland. A conversation that started with David and Roger last December has taken shape in recent months with the beginnings of a collaborative initiative with Home for Good and four other charities. Each of these charities is active in the interface between the Church and social care in Northern Ireland. We each seek to inspire and equip local churches and Christian individuals to play an active role in supporting and caring for vulnerable and isolated children, young people, and families in our communities.

Having met together in June to identify common ground and potential areas for fruitful collaboration, we are now shaping some specific shared projects around research, advocacy, resources, and events. Our hope is that together we can make small but significant differences for the families we support and that we can inspire more churches to get involved. We’re also planning some events for Social Workers – to thank them, honour them, and encourage them in their work.

Please pray for this initiative – that it will bear fruit and bring blessing and inspiration. We’ll provide further updates here as we go.

Two become one

Our merger with Safe Families officially begins on 1 September. Over recent months there’s been lots of work in preparing for this transition – across both organisations but also here in Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland staff of both charities have been meeting together to listen, learn, dream, and plan together. We want to maximize this opportunity to reach more churches and a wider audience with our shared message of hope and transformation. You can read more about the merger here. We’d also encourage you to sign up for the Safe Families & Home for Good Vision night on 30 September – a special online event to mark the launch of the newly merged charity.

New partnership with Northern HSC Trust

In July, Home for Good signed a new three-year agreement with the Northern HSC Trust as part of our shared commitment not only to find new homes for children through fostering, supported lodgings, and adoption but also to support those families who are already playing their part. Safe Families already have a partnership with Northern Trust to provide support for isolated families, and we see huge potential in developing this twin-track approach in the northeast of Northern Ireland. We’d love to develop new and deeper connections with churches across the Northern Trust area – so do link in with us if you’re part of a church in the area. Please pray that our partnerships with the Southern Trust and Northern Trust will be fruitful and that new opportunities would develop to work more closely with the other Trusts.

Support Groups

One of our priorities for our work across Northern Ireland is to grow the number of peer support groups. These groups are an incredibly valuable source of support and encouragement for foster carers, adoptive parents, and kinship carers. They provide safe, caring places for people to share with others who ‘get it’. We already have eight groups running in Northern Ireland, but there’s potential for a lot more. We’ll be having a special focus on these groups at our NI Summit in November.

We’re delighted to share that the Bangor Support Group will be relaunching in October. We’re holding an online info/intro session on 2 September to share a bit more about this group which will meet monthly on Monday evenings. If you are a kinship carer, foster carer, or adoptive parent in the North Down/Ards area, do sign up for this info session. And if you’re interested in joining or starting up a support group, please get in touch with Roger or Tash.

Together: NI Summit 2024

Registration is now open for this year’s NI Summit. This is the key date in the calendar for the Home for Good family across Northern Ireland. It’s a great place to connect with others who raise and host care-experienced children and with church leaders who have caught the vision for the role of local churches in this space. But it’s also an opportunity for those who are keen to find out more about how they or their churches can get involved. This year we’ll also be marking the merger with Safe Families and exploring some of the new opportunities this merger creates for families and churches.

In addition to the main conference programme, there’s also a children’s programme and a youth programme.

Find out more about the NI Summit and book your place here.

Northern Ireland match funding

A reminder that throughout 2024, any new – or increased – donations to Home for Good from Northern Ireland churches and individuals will go further thanks to some generous match-funding by a supporter. For every £1 donated (or increased) this year, 50p will be added as a top-up. If you have any questions about the match-funding or you’d like to explore investing further in our work, drop an email to [email protected] and we'll be happy to help.

To donate to Home for Good today, go to our donations page.

What can I be praying for?

Please continue to pray with us as we work together to find and sustain a family home for every child who needs one in Northern Ireland.

Give thanks for the connections and conversations across Northern Ireland in recent months. Pray that God would continue to nurture the seeds that have been planted over the summer.
Pray for the collaboration initiative with Evangelical Alliance and other charities – that clear plans would emerge and that this work would result in positive outcomes for families, churches, and the charities involved.
Pray for the merger with Safe Families. Pray particularly for positive integration of the teams and the work across Northern Ireland.
Pray for our partnerships with the HSC Trusts across Northern Ireland, particularly within Southern and Northern Trusts.
Pray for the Bangor support group as it relaunches and for the growth of the support group network across Northern Ireland.