On this episode of the MBCBH Podcast, hosts Nate Melton and Jasper Rains introduce listeners to the Family Resource Development program at the Missouri Baptist Children’s Home. They sit down with Jasmine Hamilton Baldwin, Assistant Program Director for Family Resource Development, and Angie Gentry, Family Resource Development Supervisor from the Joplin office. Together, they discuss the critical purpose and function of the program in recruiting, training, and supporting foster parents to care for youth across Missouri.

The conversation highlights the sobering math and significant need for specialized foster homes in the state—where over 12,000 children are currently in care with only about 5,000 licensed foster homes available. Jasmine and Angie break down the realities of this deficit, sharing that many current homes are already at full capacity, and explaining the urgent bottleneck causing older youth to occasionally sleep in offices or hotels with staff while waiting for a permanent family placement.

Listeners will learn about the exact steps and requirements to become a foster parent, from background checks and home visits to the 11-week pre-service training process, which at MBCH uniquely integrates an extra week focused on spiritual development. The guests also touch on the flexibility of age preferences and clear up common misconceptions about marital status, emphasizing that healthy, loving environments can successfully come from single-parent homes just as they do from married couples.

Finally, the episode highlights additional ways for churches to wrap around local foster families, pointing out that everyone can step into love-in-motion—whether by opening their home to foster or by supporting the foster families already within their own faith communities.