Springs of Love – St Jude Chapter

The mission of Springs of Love is to help Catholics discern and live out the call to foster and adopt while also equipping parishes to walk alongside families who do.

Just about anyone!

Volunteers can do a variety of big or small acts of love that make a big impact on the families we support.

Foster and adoptive families can join and be supported by our volunteer community.

Foster and adoptive families face complex challenges as they accompany their children through grief, loss, and questions of identity.

They need:

• Faith-based formation
• The encouragement of a community of other foster and adoptive families
• The broader support of the Church

SPRINGS OF LOVE WAS FOUNDED TO MEET THIS NEED

AWARENESS Raise awareness, inspire new foster families, and increase parish and diocesan involvement

ACCOMPANIMENT Support foster and adoptive families through Care Teams

COMMUNITY Host events to help families build community

Because we are a new ministry and are still figuring things out, we are picking a few specific areas we want to focus on. We want to do a few things well, rather than a lot of things poorly.

Our current focuses of support:

• Meal Trains. The plan is to create a stock of freezer meals. Each family interested in taking part in this will get 2 meals delivered a month, with the hope to eventually get to 4.
  • Volunteers needed
    • To make the meals
    • To deliver the meals
• Baby gear closet. We are going to have a space at St Alphonsus to keep baby gear (strollers, walkers, pack and plays, etc.) to be available to foster families that need it. These items would be returned after use so another family could use them. We are also going to have new socks, underwear, bedding, and backpacks for older children.
  • We will need
    • Donations of baby gear items
    • Donations of items for older children. This could be done in a donation drive
    • It would also be helpful to have someone that could keep things in order at the closet
• Prayer ministry. Ideally each family that is interested will have someone in the prayer ministry regularly praying for them.
  • We will need
    • Volunteers to “adopt” a family to pray for
    • someone to keep track of the prayer list
• Faith in Fostering Events. These are held after a Mass at a variety of parishes around the county. They are informational meetings with several Catholic Charities employees to explain the need of homes and the process to get licensed.
  • This area does not need volunteers at this time.

This chapter focuses on foster families from Catholic Charities of West Michigan. It is a collaboration between St Jude and CCWM. Sue Wuorinen is the lead for St Jude, and Amy Pereira is the lead for CCWM.

At this time, our chapter represents the diocese of Grand Rapids. We are the only one in the state!

Thank you for even considering it!

We realize that everyone is busy and some have more time than others. We want to make this as doable for you as possible.

Contacting us is the first step! You can let us know what time you have available or maybe a skill set that you could contribute. You can find a brief form at the bottom of this page.

First, you can check out their website at www.springsoflove.org

Next, you can attend our first informational meeting for volunteers at St Jude on Wednesday, July 15 from 7-8PM in the Brophy Center. We would love for you to join us – no commitment needed!