Safe Families Canada

Safe Families Edmonton is a part of a national movement fueled by compassion to keep children safe and families intact while they walk through times of crisis. Safe Families partners with churches to create extended family-like support for families who find themselves in crisis. This can look like a family opening their home to a preschooler for a week while a single mom is in the hospital, or helping with drop-offs, pick-ups, and other errands while a grandma navigates becoming the primary guardian of her three grandkids, or meeting regularly with a mom of a teen who feels overwhelmed and at the end of her rope. While the type of support is unique to each situation, our heart is to create a caring community around families who find themselves in crisis, so that they can continue to care for their children while finding their way through crisis and hopefully meet Jesus along the way. 

Safe Families Edmonton launched in September 2020, during the global pandemic. Since then the generous-hearted people of the Edmonton region have walked with 39 families in crisis. Our team of amazing volunteers has hosted kids for 235 nights so far this year. We love to partner with both organisations and churches who have a heart to see every child grow up in a safe and well supported family. Given the size of the Edmonton region, and the snowball effect as the word spreads about what we do, we are always looking for more partners to join with us to love families experiencing a crisis and demonstrate Jesus’ compelling invitation to life by becoming His hands and feet.

Email or Call us for more information       OR      Sign-up to Volunteer with us Today! 

edmonton@safefamilies.ca.  780-777-7457

Safe Families Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge is a Chapter of Safe Families Canada.  SF is a nationwide Christian nonprofit that builds intentional circles of support around struggling families who are socially isolated, struggling, and facing a crisis.  Embracing the values of biblical hospitality, radical generosity, and mercy fueled by compassion, we are striving to create a world where children are safe, and families’ lives are transformed by a caring compassionate community. We host vulnerable children and coach, befriend and resource families through a network of volunteers working through local area churches. Our goals are clear: 1.  To strengthen and build resiliency within families 2. To keep children safe and out of the child welfare system where possible 3. To keep families together and 4. To strengthen the compassion ministries of churches.  This could look like caring for a baby while an ill mom is hospitalized, mentoring a mom who’s struggling with raising her teenager in a single-parent household to offering meals, drives, or supplies to an under-resourced family.  Extending the community safety net for at-risk families by providing lasting extended family-like relationships, we can keep families together while we support them through a crisis and out the other side.

Since we launched in February of 2018, we have supported over 150 families and provided over 465 bednights this year alone through our network of over 160 volunteers.  Working alongside area churches and agencies, we are connected to families and children who are desperate for relationships and support.  Because of the size of our area and the very real need for connection and community, we are always looking for volunteers who have a heart to see children safe and families well supported during a time of need.  We would love to invite you to join us as we open our hearts and our hands and our homes to the most vulnerable among us as we live out Jesus’ command to love our neighbors as ourselves.

Sign Up to VOLUNTEER with US today!!

Vanessa Ploc, Regional Director KW and Cambridge

Questions?  Contact us at kitchenerwaterloo@safefamilies.ca or by phone at 519-504-2516

Since our opening in October, the generosity of Lethbridge has enabled Safe Families to assist 40 families! We are thrilled to have successfully supported 24 families, while continuing to help 16 more. We have been hard at work helping connect families to resources in our community, break down barriers to accessing support, and making achievable goals to continue to move positively through crisis. Our incredible volunteers have been providing incredible relational supports including provided 3423 Hosting Hours! 

It is clear that Safe Families is fulfilling a critical need in the community. Other agencies have greeted us with excitement and urgency, recognizing the gaps they cannot fill. We are honored to have dedicated volunteers who step in to support families in crisis in such meaningful ways.

Help us continue this vital work and double our capacity to wrap around even more families in need. The following are needed volunteer positions: Host Families, Family Friends, Resource Friends, and Family Coaches.  We are especially in need of more Family Friends. 

Thank you for considering serving with SFC| Lethbridge!