Birmingham’s Lifeline Children’s Services provides care for children and families, continuing to develop ministry opportunities and resources since their founding in 1981.
With a program called “Heritage Builders,” through which churches serve youth who are about to age out of foster care, Lifeline seeks to minister to teenagers and young adults with the love of Christ — and support them in tangible ways as they transition to independence.
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Heritage Builders was launched in 2021, and staff and volunteers have gained valuable understanding about the best ways to develop tools and training for churches to start, implement and maintain the ministry within their communities.
As a result, Heritage Builders has successfully ministered to teenagers and young adults who are part of Child Protective Services’ independent or transitional living programs.
Staff members like Sheila White, program manager for Heritage Builders, and Traci Newell, director of church-based programs, are encouraged to see churches around the country getting involved.
“We have a total of 21 church partners in 12 states,” White noted. “Three of them are located in Alabama.” Those three include Shades Mountain Baptist Birmingham, Vaughn Forest Church Montgomery and Valleydale Church Birmingham.
Each church partner is supported by one or two coordinators, two class leaders and a host of dedicated advocates to come alongside.
“Our church partners host monthly life skills classes, including a meal and practical education,” Newell said. “Advocates provided by the church are encouraged to attend the classes with the teens. Through the relationships built with their advocates and other church members, participating teens can experience an increase in connections and social capital, setting them up for greater success as they leave the foster care system.
“Practically speaking, local churches provide education, relationships and connection to resources through Heritage Builders.”
The staff and volunteers with the effort are encouraged by testimonies they hear about God’s power at work to bring restoration for vulnerable teenagers and young adults.
“During one of our Heritage Builders meetings, a teenage girl was chatting with her class leader when she suddenly stopped mid-sentence and sprinted across the room,” White recounted. “A young man had just walked in, and it was her brother, whom she hadn’t seen since they were separated and placed in foster care three months earlier.
“From that day on, both siblings attended the monthly Heritage Builders meetings faithfully, providing their only chance to spend time together. Later that year, a Christian couple adopted them both, reuniting them for good.”
An obvious need
Tommy DeRamus, adults plus engagement minister for Shades Mountain, said their members were eager to join Heritage Builders as they were approached by Aren Williams, a Lifeline staff member and member of the church.
“Aren brought the Heritage Builders model to us just as it was getting started and asked us if we could provide some space for the meetings,” DeRamus recalled. “We were in the early stages of looking outside of our immediate community to see how we could find ways to reach people who needed a church connection. Heritage Builders seemed like a good opportunity to step into that area of ministry.
“The Lord blessed Aren’s efforts as she reached out to the Jefferson County Department of Human Resources office to let them know about Heritage Builders.”
More group homes started to bring residents, and “it was obvious that this ministry was needed by the young people in the DHR group homes, and it was just as obvious that the Lord had already placed people in our church who had a heart to minister to those young people,” DeRamus said.
Heritage Builders’ White and Newell noted some needs and prayer requests.
“We have an immediate need for another church in Jefferson County to come alongside Shades Mountain Baptist to host a monthly life skills class and provide mentors,” Newell said. “We would love to see this grow throughout Alabama.
Blessings
DeRamus noted Shades Mountain has seen firsthand the positive impact of Heritage Builders.
“I have seen two types of blessings as a result of our partnership with Lifeline and Heritage Builders,” he explained. “First, this ministry has provided a way for our church to be connected with the Alabama Department of Human Resources in a very positive way.”
Through Heritage Builders, we have been able to build some very healthy relationships with DHR staff members, both in Jefferson County and at the state level.
“Because of the quality of the Lifeline materials and the training and support they provide to our volunteers … the Lord has used these relationships in such a positive way that the DHR staff actually tells their group home leaders to bring their young people to our church.”
DeRamus is also encouraged to see relationships being built.
“Heritage Builders provides an open door to bring young people who need to hear the gospel,” he said. “The second area of blessing I have seen is how the Lord has touched the hearts of our volunteers and given them such a desire to minister to the young people that He has entrusted to us through Heritage Builders. We started with four or five volunteers, and now we regularly have almost 20 volunteers for every meeting.”
They serve food, engage in conversation with the students and participate in lessons and activities. And they know the young people by name.
“They have built relationships with them because they have consistently showed up month after month for almost five years now,” DeRamus continued. “When we started to promote what Heritage Builders was about, people in our church stepped up to say, ‘I want to be a part of this.’
“We’ve had two of our volunteers start a new ministry to support and assist the young people when they leave the group homes and start to live on their own,” DeRamus said. “Best of all, we had one young lady give her life to Christ at one of our Christmas meetings.”
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