Keeping Families Together Works

“It’s deeply complex,” said Charlee Tchividjian, founder of Every Mother’s Advocate. “There’s not a choosing of what’s more or less important, but a collective understanding that the ultimate goal is to reunify. Before that, we want to be even more proactive and keep families together when possible.”

Tchividjian’s words set the tone for a session on upstream family crisis prevention and preservation at the Christian Alliance for Orphans’ international conference in Houston. Through Every Mother’s Advocate, she has developed a “theory of change” built on learning, belonging, and vital supports—a framework that has helped 95% of participating families remain intact. Her message captured a shared conviction among leaders in the field: while reunification is the goal of the foster care system, the deeper mission is to prevent separation from happening in the first place.

The panel brought together national leaders whose work centers on equipping churches and communities to strengthen families before crisis leads to removal. Among those leaders was Paul Chapman, Executive Director of Restore Hope, who joined the panel to share what it looks like to combine data-driven collaboration with faith-based compassion. Chapman offered a perspective shaped by years of experience leading cross-sector alliances in Arkansas through the 100 Families Initiative, a model that helps families move from crisis to stability by uniting churches, agencies, and nonprofits around shared goals and real-time data.

“You have to put a coalition or an alliance together,” Chapman said. “It takes influence, a shared goal, and a unifying point.”

He explained that sustainable family preservation requires both structure and soul—systems that make collaboration possible, and relationships that make it meaningful. Chapman noted that when partners focus on a family’s well-being in isolation rather than in coordination, opportunities can easily be missed—like a father losing his best chance at long-term stability simply because the right people weren’t communicating.

Each panelist echoed this focus on proactive, relational engagement. Jeff Chaisson, Executive Director of Salty Family Services, described how his organization serves roughly 250 families each month through mentoring and practical skill development. Their mission, he explained, is to help families prevent removals and support reunification when children are already in care.

“We’re not social workers when we go out to homes,” he said. “We are shepherds." Rather than trying to “fix” people, Chaisson explains, their purpose is to remind them of their worth—that they are made in the image of God.

Laura Galt, National Director of Strategic Partnerships for Safe Families for Children, spoke about mobilizing churches to form genuine relationships with parents before crises escalate. She shared the story of a mother facing domestic violence who needed hospital care but had no one to watch her child. Instead of the child entering state custody, a church-based host family stepped in to help. That simple act of love prevented another child from entering foster care and helped the mother take critical steps toward stability.

“The church is really good at loving children,” said Galt, “what I think we really need to have a mindset shift around is the parents. Most of these kids want to be with their parents and if we want to help these kids, we need to help the parents.”

Galt emphasized that, statistically, everyone is better off when children are able to stay with their parents. She spoke with deep respect for the resilience of families walking through crisis.

“We have just as much to learn from the families as we have to give,” she noted.

Angela Coston, Executive Director of For the Sake of One, brought a perspective from rural communities, where trust is often a barrier to engagement. She emphasized the need to assure families that the goal of church and community involvement is not separation, but support.

“We believe God created families to be whole and Satan is a destroyer,” she said. “We are not fighting parents. We are fighting spiritual forces.” For Coston, prevention begins when families believe that the people showing up at their doors truly want to help them keep their children—not lose them.

Together, these leaders painted a holistic picture of prevention—one that is both deeply relational and rigorously collaborative. Chapman highlighted that without shared data and aligned systems, even the most well-intentioned efforts risk falling short.

“With complex situations,” he said, “there is no one group that is going to be able to take care of all the things.” Collaboration, he explained, doesn’t happen by accident—it takes intentional structure and humility.

“That alliance requires work,” Chapman said. Chapman noted that sustaining collaboration requires humility and shared celebration—an environment where success is defined collectively, not individually. “You have to have servants behind the scenes who are giving credit to others.”

Tchividjian reflected at the close of the discussion, “The work is long, and it’s hard. But I’m so glad God didn’t give up on me after six weeks. We can’t give up on families either.”

By using data, compassion, and action, leaders like those on this panel are demonstrating that prevention is possible—and that when families are strengthened, entire communities flourish.