Chosen Receives $75,000 Grant from Baptist Health Foundation to Support Mentoring and Parent Education for Kinship Families 

Provided By: Chosen Care

The Baptist Health Foundation has awarded Chosen a $75,000 grant to fund mentoring and parent education for kinship families.

Chosen is a nonprofit that helps children heal from trauma and strengthens foster, kinship and adoptive families through mentoring, parent education and therapeutic services.

“We are incredibly grateful for our first-time award from the Baptist Health Foundation, whose mission to honor God in fostering and funding strategic initiatives aligns beautifully with our work,” said Jenni Lord, executive director of Chosen. “We are humbled and honored to join forces in the transformational work needed for hurting kinship families and children in our community.”  

Every day, nearly 5,000 children are in foster care in San Antonio and surrounding communities.  Oftentimes, when a child is placed with a new family, unexpected challenges can arise for both the child and his or her caregivers.

Families often get distressed, Lord explained, because of out-of-control behaviors that a child can exhibit. “But there’s so much going on internally for that child and their brain has been affected,” she said. “They are likely rejecting love and security from a caregiver because of abuse and neglect in the past. They have a lot of fear. Many children live in a fight, flight or freeze mentality.”

“We work directly with caretakers to understand what the child is dealing with and how to handle negative behaviors so that healing can begin,” Lord added. “The healing comes from the relationship. That’s our focus for the child and the family.”

Baptist Health Foundation of San Antonio is committed to improving the health of our community by fostering and funding clinical, educational, spiritual and scientific initiatives while honoring God and its Baptist heritage. For more information, visit www.bhfsa.org.

For more information about Chosen, visit www.chosen.care or call (830) 455-0101.