Social Work Faculty Publications

Congregations Who Care for Children

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Summer 2008

Journal Title

Family and Community Ministries

ISSN

1935-5408

Volume

22

Issue

2

First Page

4

Last Page

17

Abstract

This is a second of two articles reporting the findings of a national study of 101 congregation-based child care (CBCC) programs and of in-depth interviews with congregational leaders CBCC program administrators, teachers and parents Congregations affiliated with mainline denominations are more than twice as likely to provide CBCC as other congregations Most congregations are motivated to provide CBCC to meet the educational needs of children not to recruit new members to their congregations A forge majority of programs (n=70) reported that faith was evident in how they loved and cared for the children and their families and more than half (n=57) indicated that religious content was part of the curriculum The authors explore the benefits and challenges of child care programs hosted by congregations Only 31% of the surveyed programs require the director and 12% require the staff teachers to be members of the congrégation and only 10% require that the director have any formal education in religion or congregational leadership The authors conclude that child care professionals and congregational leaders need more preparation and resources for developing the potential of CBCC as congregational ministry.

Keywords

Church work, children, day care centers, religion, congregations, social work education

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