Resource Library

Membership in CAFO not only benefits your organization – it’s also a chance to grow and guide a movement together. In 2024 there are many ways to be an active part of this community! Discover news ways your organization can get involved, build your team, lend your expertise and find community. As a CAFO member, … Read more

CAFO unites a growing movement in shared initiatives to inspire and equip God’s people to care effectively for vulnerable children and families, rooted always in Christian discipleship and the life of the local church. We celebrate what God has done in 2023 and want to invite you to participate in some of the most strategic … Read more

Something has sparked in your heart. you wonder what it might look like to open your life to a child that needs the love and protection of family…or at least to help in some small way. Questions like that are rarely simple. But here are seven key truths for what could become the most remarkable … Read more

Ways to contribute for kingdom impact Your sponsorship makes CAFO2024 possible – strengthening U.S. church teams, equipping leaders from developing nations, refreshing parents, connecting and training advocates and organization staff, and much more.

Jonathan Edwards wrote, “There is no way that Christians, in a private capacity, can do so much to promote the works of God and advance the kingdom of God as by prayer.” The Foster Care Prayer Guide equips you with prayer requests to do just that on behalf of kids and families in your community. … Read more

Many churches around the country are taking bold, noble and exciting steps towards repsonding to God’s call to care for orphans and vulnerable children in unprecedented ways. While it is an exciting time, it is also a time filled with many questions from church leaders regarding how to launch and lead effective and sustainable orphan … Read more

In the flurry of all the things that come with leading and implementing ministries, one of the most critically important yet often overlooked component of ministry leadership is establishing clear and consistent messaging. What are we going to say? How are we going to say it? Why are we going to say it that way? … Read more

Sponsorship programs have the potential for great good and great harm. Over the last decade, organizations and donors have been thinking critically about how these programs operate. This booklet provides guidelines for healthy sponsorship programs, a few questions for consideration in each area, and additional resources including the Guidelines for Healthy Sponsorship Toolkit, Audit, and … Read more

At the core of our motivation to care for the orphaned and vulnerable is the heart of God demonstrated through the gospel on our behalf. It’s the gospel – the story of Christ interjecting Himself into our brokenness and redeeming us out of it by bringing us into His forever family – which acts ars … Read more

It’s not an event, it’s a process. It’s the long, sometimes slow and sometimes tumultuous journey of movement – from where we are to where we need or want or hope to be. Discipleship toward a goal or vision doesn’t just happen – it requires intentionality, purpose and planning. Often times when we think of … Read more

La Alianza Cristiana para los Huérfanos afirma el entendimiento histórico cristiano – transmitido en las Escrituras y afirmado por las ciencias sociales – de que Dios pretende que la familia sea el entorno esencial para los niños. Creemos que el resultado ideal para cada huérfano es conocer el amor y la crianza de una familia … Read more

Sometimes the problem feels really big, and our people feel really small. They don’t know where to start, what to do or if they can really make a difference at all in the lives of orphaned and vulnerable children. And if we’re honest, sometimes as leaders we don’t know what to do or where to … Read more

Service-focused travel during short-term missions trips can have the potential for great harm if not wisely led or prepared. These risks can be especially high when visitors seek to serve children, particularly those lacking the protection and connectedness of family. The potential for good that short-term trips have calls for continued refining, correction, and improvement. … Read more

A collaborative project of the National Church Ministry Initiative and the Applied Research and Best Practice Initiative of the Christian Alliance for Orphans. Impacting the world in significant, meaningful, Christ-honoring ways has always been a hallmark of the Christian church. Through local, domestic and global initiatives, God’s people have historically led the way in compassionate … Read more

Every country has indigenous cultures with varying degrees of influence. Whether it be First Nations peoples in North America or tribal culture in Africa, indigenous leaders and culture hold influence and significance within large portions of the population. Indigenous communities have historically not been heavily engaged in collaboration regarding child welfare. Cultural leaders have great … Read more