Local Ministry Helps At-Risk & Foster Families

Ormond Beach, FL – A local non-profit, Hogue Ministries, is working to connect families at risk of losing their children through financial hardship, foster families, and foster children with a network of local churches. Steven Hogue and his wife Sandra, who had struggled with fertility issues before starting their journey into adoption with the foster care program. They soon realized the needs and the holes in the system and in 2013, they did something about it by becoming, what Steven says, a place to connect those in need with local churches who can help. Hogue said they really try to keep children with their families by addressing financial hardships. "If it’s a situation going on, maybe they lost their job and don’t have enough money to keep their water on or their electricity. We can connect that need to local churches so that churches can help them get through that difficult time so they don’t remove their children."  There’s a shortage of foster homes and Hogue says his ministry tries to get foster children into foster care with a family and also help foster families"helping them connect the dots." Though Hogue Ministries work is done mainly through churches, any organization or individual can help in a couple of ways. On the website, hoguecrew.org, you can donate the money, $25,  for a "Promise Bag," which gives children in foster care a bag with some selected items in it of their own. "We put essential items in that will go to a child in foster care. Inside that backpack is a flashlight. They can see their way around their new home and have that light at night when they’re scared." Hogue Ministries is hosting the Friends of Hogue Ministries Vision Dinner on May 22. The event will take place at Legacy at Oak Meadows in Pierson from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. Tickets are $50 per person which you can purchase at hoguecrew.org. All proceeds collected from the vision dinner will go directly towards the work and resources needed to fulfill this mission. If you’re in Volusia or Flagler counties and part of a foster family, thinking about becoming a foster, or a family in danger of losing their children due to financial hardship, Hogue encourages you to contact the ministry. You can reach him directly at 386-547-3141 or through the email page on the hoguecrew.org website.