We envision a Long Beach where families are healing, whole, and thriving.

Mobilize

We seek to mobilize the churches of Long Beach to step into the lives of families at risk of or involved in child welfare. We believe the church should be engage in prevention, foster care and with transitioning youth.

  • Info Meetings

  • Speaking

Educate

A trauma-informed approach is essential when working with families and individuals who are coming from hard places. It is important both professionals, volunteers, and churches work together to understand trauma and its effects in order to build a trauma-informed community.

  • Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) Training

Connect

We believe that we are better together, church to church and church to community. We provide ongoing opportunities for churches and community stakeholders to connect as well as families in our communities to connect to resources.

  • Alliance Meetings

  • Supporting Congregations

Collaborate

We do not all have to do the same thing, but we can all do something. Rather then competing for resources, we seek to work collaboratively. We believe that communities already have the resources needed so we seek to empower and support those efforts.

  • Resource Fairs

  • Family Time Events

Who We Are

Reconcile Long Beach aims to mobilize the churches of Long Beach to reconcile and redeem vulnerable families in the city. Through partnership with local organizations and agencies, the initiative seeks to resource, reunite, and reconcile families involved in or at risk of entering the child welfare system, with the broader vision of creating a community where families are healing, whole, and thriving.

The organizations will work with local churches of Long Beach to connect and collaborate with one another and other city stakeholders to meet the needs of children and families involved in or at risk of being involved with the Department of Child & Family Services. 

The initiative focuses on mobilizing, educating, connecting, and collaborating with churches to support vulnerable families. The primary objective is the reconciliation and restoration of biological families, with a secondary goal of fostering and adoption where necessary. The initiative will strive to work in partnership with The Department of Child & Family Services, The City of Long Beach, and other local stakeholders.

Theory of Change

Reconcile Long Beach operates on the belief that strong families require community support.

We believe:

  • Reconciled families are healing, whole, and thriving.

  • Strong families emerge when they are well-resourced.

  • Families are resourced when they are connected to supportive networks.

  • Support networks form when churches actively engage with each other, community stakeholders, and families in need.

The goals of this theory of change are that the number of children entering into foster care is reduced, the number of families involved with DCFS is diminished, more foster families are available, and the number of families reunified is increased in Long Beach. 

How we started

A small team has been working together since January of 2024 to dream and research the goals and limitations comprised of CASA Volunteers, Pastors, Nonprofits Leaders, Community Impact Leaders, and DCFS.

Historically, good work has been completed in this area in Long Beach. Below are just a few highlighted moments.

The work of Home Forever was birthed out of Grace Brethren Long Beach by John Moore and Eric Churchill. Their work recruited many foster and adoptive families and began to grow a community of believers committed to providing homes to vulnerable children. The work continued for many years and eventually evolved into a resource center before closing during COVID-19.

The second was a council of Pastors, DCFS, and other stakeholders committed to serving vulnerable families in our city. A strong partnership between the church and DCFS marked this alliance.

The third was the Violence Prevention Plan/ SAFE Long Beach from the City of Long Beach. Church leaders, nonprofit leaders, and city officials came together to create this plan. An entire section of the plan was devoted to Safe Families and, within it, a strategic plan to partner better with the city’s faith leaders. This plan has yet to be fully executed due to COVID-19.

Present Day

The South Bay Collaborative was formed in March of 2023 by Saddleback Church’s Vulnerable Children Initiative. While a brave attempt to unite a large area, it became evident that a more localized focus was needed within the initiative for it to be effective. They are currently working to create “Hubs” to allow local leaders in their area to meet the needs of their specific context. Reconcile Long Beach will be the leader for Long Beach.

DCFS has recently restructured zip code assignments to specific regional offices. The result has been that the Lakewood DCFS office is now only focused on serving families in Long Beach, Lakewood, Signal Hill, and Catalina. This shift has dramatically lessened their social workers’ numerical load. However, the acuity of the cases has increased dramatically.

Many churches are still rebuilding after the effects of COVID-19, and many efforts and initiatives have become siloed. While many people are doing good work throughout the city, there are still gaps. Transition-aged youth, kinship support, and family reunification are just a few of the areas in the child welfare system that continue to see gaps in services. These specific areas are where Reconcile Long Beach sees itself stepping into the gap.

In 2024, Long Beach Church Collective graciously took on Reconcile as an initiative and is operating as the fiscal sponsor, allowing Reconcile LB the space to grow itself into its own organization in the future.