PALM DESERT — Children across the Coachella Valley are in need of safe homes where they can temporarily reside and even live permanently. Fortunately, more and more families in the valley’s faith-based community are opening their doors and their hearts to these kids.
“The more faith-based families we have – taking in children – the better partnership and network we have with the community,” said Cameron Galford, Riverside County Adoptions supervisor.
Danny Sells, director of Safe Families for Children through Olive Crest, echoes that sentiment. “We partner with the faith-based community to provide children a safe place to temporarily stay as a step before they’re part of the system,” he said.
Olive Crest is an organization that works with at-risk children. Safe Families for Children is a program that trains volunteers who are willing to temporarily care for a child or children. Families who participate in the program allow their child(ren) to stay with a host famiy, said Sells. “These children are not part of the system,” Sells pointed out. “We’ve created a deflection system to try and prevent their situations from worsening.”
Also, children who participate in Safe Families are not abused or neglected children, Sells said. Typically parents are dealing with homelessness, addiction or domestic violence; they want their children somewhere safe while positive changes are being made, Sells explained.
Safe Families currently partners with Southwest Community Church in Indian Wells. The church supports program volunteers by facilitating volunteer training programs.

Unfortunately, sometimes situations escalate and that’s when Social Services are forced to intervene. In 2010, Riverside County received 58,528 hotline calls alleging child abuse.
After investigations, nearly 2,800 children were removed from their homes and 49 percent of those children were placed in foster care. “The need is great, unfortunately it always is,” said Galford. “We have ongoing recruitment of foster families; it never goes away.”
When social workers determine that a child needs to be removed from his or her home, they first seek other relatives or friends for placement. This is an effort to keep the child(ren) in a somewhat familiar environment, explained Galford. If relatives aren’t available, a child will go into a licensed foster care home.
“We have families who want to be part of a permanent plan,” said Galford. Those are families who go through the licensing process, but want to adopt a child rather than foster, she said.
Currently, the valley has a number of families who are waiting to permanently adopt children. Only five percent of children are relinquished by their parents. The other 95 percent of children are removed from their birthmother; if the birthmother doesn’t complete appropriate steps (rehabilitation, classes, programs, etc.) those children may be adopted. “(The parents) aren’t bad, but something keeps them from caring for their children,” Galford said.
“There is still a need in the valley for foster families willing to take more than one or two children; often times there are four or more children in a family and they shouldn’t be separated. The situation for these kids is already frightening enough,” said Galford. “It makes it so much harder when siblings are split up and spread out.”
For more information about Safe Families for Children through Olive Crest, please visit their website at http://olivecrest.org.
For more information about becoming a licensed foster care provider or adopting through Riverside County, please visit their website at http://dpss.co.riverside.ca.us/ChildProtectiveServices.aspx#Top.