It is common knowledge that our foster care system is overwhelmed. Too many children fall through the cracks. Sometimes a parent only needs help for a day, or a week or three. It is in those in-between spaces that nonprofit organizations like Safe Families for Children can help. Kari Nobel is Community & Church Engagement Coordinator in the new Southwest Michigan chapter.
“Southwest Michigan’s Safe Families is an alliance chapter based in Kalamazoo,” Nobel said. “We opened our doors officially in 2023, and our first hosting started last winter, in 2024. We have four people on staff, and we take care of all the operations of the chapter: fundraising—which for a non-profit is always a thing—as well as recruiting and onboarding volunteers. All our volunteers go through extensive background checks, very similar to the foster care system.”
The Safe Families mission is to help keep children safe and out of the foster care system while supporting parents with resources and services to resolve the crisis. That can also mean opening homes to temporarily care for children.
“There are a lot of children who end up in the [foster care] system because … crisis kind of snowballs,” Nobel says. “You might have one horrible thing happen that you might be able to get through and work through. But when you have multiple things happen at once, stress becomes high, and the situation declines, and you find yourself in an unmanageable situation.”
When that happens, Nobel says, Safe Families enters the picture and offers a circle of support, a safety net. People needing the service may be new to the area and not have anyone that can help, or it may be a case of domestic violence or illness.
“There may be various reasons,” Nobel adds. “We provide that extra layer of help and support so that they can breathe.”
Children may stay with vetted families for a few hours, days, months, or even longer. Nobel became involved and opened her home to children when she and her husband Jon learned that they could not have children of their own, but couldn’t foster for longer terms either, as their family business takes them on the road for months at a time.
To learn more about Safe Families, whether to use its services, to volunteer, or to donate, visit southwestmichigan.safe-families.org/ or email knobel@safefamilies.net.
