OKLAHOMA CAPITOL -- The Pontotoc County Oklahoma Department of Human Services and the Office of Faith Based & Community Initiatives are partnering together to recruit the Ada-area churches to help with the state's foster care program, according to an OKDHS official.

"We have more than 50 churches in the Ada area and, within 15 miles of each one of those churches, OKDHS has placed about 70 children in foster care," said Sherry Gold, who works with the foster care program in the Ada area. Gold is asking churches to contact her if they would like to take part in addressing the many needs of foster children in OKDHS care.

OFBCI’s mission is to help Oklahoma's poor and disadvantaged by establishing faith links -- linking government with faith-based and community organizations to provide social services. One of their key priorities is to inform motivate, and enlist the faith community to address the many needs and issues facing children in foster care and effected families.

"These children are social orphans," Robin Jones, OFBCI director. "Through no fault of their own, they are unable to stay with their immediate families. Some of them are victims of extreme poverty or abandonment while others have been abused or have a parent or parents incarcerated."

For more information on OFBCI’s activities visit http://www.faithlinksok.org/ (Link opens in new window). Gold can be reached at (580) 310-7025 or by e-mail at sherry.gold@okdhs.org.

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