Journal Gazette coverage of Safe Families for Children program
Steve Warden from The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne's morning daily paper, had a great profile of one of our clients and her family on Tuesday.
The need wasn't for her. This was about her kids – their safety and their welfare. And when there was no one else to turn to, that's when Sarah Caldwell reached out for help and why the Safe Families for Children program took her hand.
It was early June, and she was in the final weeks of a difficult pregnancy. Caldwell's doctor insisted she stay in bed if she wanted to ensure the health of her unborn son. That was all well and good. But she also had five other kids to care for. How she could do that as a single mom, she wasn't sure.
“I was staying at the Vincent Village because I had left my husband,” says Caldwell, 26. “I ran away from an abusive relationship, and I had nowhere to go.”
So as she rested the final days of her pregnancy at Vincent Village, a transitional shelter for homeless families, relatives tended to her oldest three, ages 9, 7 and 5. It was her two youngest, ages 1 and 2, who needed the most care and most attention. They received it when a family connected with Safe Families for Children volunteered to take them.