Kat, Safe Families Midlands

Kat Osborn is currently the Midlands Programme Director for Safe Families for Children, and heard about Acts 435 through her local church. After a visit by our Executive Director, Jenny Herrera, Safe Families for Children got on board.

Safe Families for Children is a charity that operates across the UK working in partnership with Local Authorities and the Local Church to provide an effective intervention for families facing a crisis. They place church-based volunteers around families that are struggling to provide the support of a good friend, neighbour or grandparent when those roles tend to be missing in their world.

Kat says, 'the support through Acts 435 enables our volunteers to meet some of the practical needs that the families may have; sometimes this helps us to initially build trust with a family because it’s a quick and easy win, it always provides a way to offer generosity to families that know little of generosity in their own lives.'

Kat went on to say, if Safe Families for Children didn't partner with Acts 435 they couldn't meet these practical needs, and build these bridges with the families that they work with. Families such as single parents who have fled domestic violence and been rehoused with nothing to get the basics they need; from washing machines and ovens to bedding and bunk beds. Kat also described 'a single dad wanting to make his son's room special for him by putting carpet in it, and we have also been able to provide nappies, sterilisers and a cot for a mum who had just given birth and was living in a refuge.'

Kat also mentioned that being an Advocate is 'really straightforward, and the team are always ready to support and make things as simple as possible'; and if anyone was considering becoming an Advocate in their church or charity to: 'definitely do it , not only has it been amazing to me that we have been able to bless so many families but also I am blown away each time by the generosity of those giving. It’s a beautiful thing to be part of.'