Maryland has about 3,800 children needing a foster care placement, but not enough foster families to take them, according to state and local officials.
Jason and Jen Float of Laurel have launched a nonprofit to work with churches to help fill that gap.
“Can we, as the church, stand up, open our homes and open our doors” to needy children throughout the state? Jason asks, hoping and believing the answer is “yes.”
The Floats launched their organization, Project Belong, last year as an affiliate of a nonprofit in Virginia of the same name. Both are part of a national Project 127 network of churches, focused on living out the biblical imperative in James 1:27: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this … that we look after orphans in their distress.”
The Virginia organization has provided the Floats with seed funding.
So far, the Floats have lined up three anchor churches: Grace Community Church in Fulton, where they are members; Christ Fellowship Assembly of God in Silver Spring; and McLean Bible Church’s congregation in Rockville. These churches encourage members to consider foster parenting and provide wraparound services for foster families, such as parent support groups, babysitting, child mentoring and material donations, Jason explained.
Lillian Price, spokesperson for the state Department of Human Services, said in an email that the department prioritizes placing children who must be removed from parents with relatives, such as grandparents, aunts and uncles.
The second choice is with a family that is not related but has been certified for foster parenting by a county social services department, which is the focus of Project Belong. In those two categories, the state has 2,043 licensed homes, she said.
“There is always a need for more foster parents in Prince George’s County,” said DeMiya Rowland, a spokesperson for the Prince George’s County Department of Social Services, in an email.
Rowland said 323 children were currently in the foster system, and the county has about 82 licensed foster homes.
Jason Float said the network of churches is growing. On April 22, the organization will hold its first county launch and bring together representatives of churches in Montgomery County with county social service officials to explore how they can work together. Future launches are planned in Howard, Baltimore, Frederick and Carroll counties.
The Floats took a step of faith when Jason gave up a well-paying job as director of product development for a small health care technology company to start the new venture.
“I felt so at peace with that — that God has a plan here,” he said.
Jason and Jen were high school sweethearts in Towson who later married and moved to Laurel in 2008. Jen became an early childhood intervention specialist with Prince George’s County Public Schools, while Jason worked in health care technology.
The couple had planned to have children of their own before eventually becoming foster parents, but infertility changed those plans.
Eventually, in 2013, with no children of their own, they decided to move forward with fostering.
It took almost a year to complete the licensing process with Prince George’s County Social Services.
Jason vividly remembers the first placement call from a social worker. She told them two siblings — a 5-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl — needed temporary care.
“We said yes, we looked at each other, and then we drove down to Upper Marlboro to pick up the children,” Jason said.
As they drove back to Laurel, Jason recalled hearing the little girl in the back seat saying repeatedly, “police take Mommy.”
“It was crazy. It was chaos,” he said of those first weeks. “We were new parents, so we were learning everything.”
They enrolled the boy in school, dealt with the girl’s medical issues and worked with social workers, lawyers and judges.
The children stayed with the Floats for two and a half years.
Although the siblings eventually returned to their parents and later moved to another foster home, the Floats stayed in touch.
Jen recently began weekly phone calls with the girl, now 15, after learning she was going through a difficult period.
“There were definitely some tears as I encouraged her,” Jen said.
Jason said he also remains close with the boy, now 18.
“We talked till 1 in the morning about his life, about his struggles,” Jason said. “It’s such a fun relationship.”
Later, after the Floats had three biological children of their own, they continued taking short-term placements. In late 2018, they agreed to take in a 14-year-old girl for what was supposed to be two weeks. She ended up staying for five months.
Now 21, she lives on her own in Greenbelt. The Floats helped her move in, attended her baptism and still keep in touch with her regularly.
Through it all, Jason said it has been a rewarding journey as he and his wife continue to advocate for churches to help fill gaps in the foster care system.
“Often the church has been pushed out, and we would love to have the state say, ‘We need you,’” Jason said. “And to see it elevate the role of the church in healing children.”