Justice Collective exists to inspire, inform and engage individuals and communities to opportunities in working social change. We see that social justice is at the heart of the gospel, in that Jesus rights wrongs in the earth.

Inspire – Connect – Engage

How Does Justice Collective Progress This Mandate?

Justice Collective is partnered with three projects that provide opportunities to get involved in the local community:

• Foster Shasta
• Youth Mentoring Collaborative
• Anti-trafficking efforts

https://www.thejusticeco.org/meet

Foster Shasta

Foster Shasta exists to help raise awareness of the need for resource parents in Shasta County. Furthermore, Foster Shasta supports local foster family agencies to recruit individuals who can support the needs of vulnerable kids in need of temporary homes.

You may ask, “What is the church’s role in the Foster Care crisis?” With roughly 400,000 children in need of foster care in the USA and 122,000 waiting for adoption, the church has a huge role to play in bringing solutions.

Did you know?

• According to a statistic by the National Youth Foster Institute, 60% of child sex trafficking victims recovered by the FBI in 2013 were from foster care or group homes.
• After the age of 8 years old, only 1% of people look to adopt that child
• 75% of people incarcerated in the USA are from foster care backgrounds
• 50% of the homeless population in the USA are from foster care backgrounds

If we begin to catch these issues upstream, we can work towards a transformed society.

There are approximately 400,000 churches in the USA, if one in three congregations stepped up to adopt, there would be no more children waiting for stable, long term homes.

We believe that helping vulnerable children and youth find a safe place to live is a strategic step in helping prevent their exploitation through sex trafficking.

There are multiple ways our community can get involved with supporting Shasta County’s vulnerable children and resource families, including:

• Become a resource parent or family (foster carer)
• Transitional in-home mentor
• Respite Carer for families who are already fostering
• Supplying the practical and emotional needs of resource families
• Become an ambassador for this cause in our community

contact@fostershasta.com

Mentoring Collaborative

The Mentoring Collaborative knows that positive adult relationships with at-risk youth can change the course of their lives, and in turn, the long-term health of their communities.

Children raised in single-parent homes face unique challenges. They are less likely to graduate high school or college, more likely to use drugs and alcohol, and more likely to have mental health problems. The breakdown of families often leads to the breakdown of society.

Having an adult mentor makes a huge difference to at-risk youth. According to Standtogether.org, a mentor increases a student’s likelihood of attending college by 50%, youth in mentoring programs are also 46% less likely to use drugs and 27% less likely to use alcohol. Being a mentor makes a BIG difference!

What we do:

We bring groups of 5-8 adult mentors to six public school campuses, seeing approximately 150 youth each week. At each campus, we collaborate with school counselors, principals and school staff to create a mentoring group tailored to the unique needs of the school. The groups are focused on building leadership, life skills, and character development. In these groups, we model healthy behaviors, teaching kids to approach their life journey with strength and wisdom.

Anti-Trafficking

We gather front line responders and community members to holistically address all aspects of human trafficking in Shasta County. We focus on four key areas to achieve this:

• Awareness; through events, social media and trainings with professionals
• Prevention; through trafficking trainings in schools to help children recognize red flag situations, online risks and unhealthy relationships
• Intervention; outreach to the illicit massage parlors, online ads and the exploited homeless demographic
• Restoration- survivor advocacy services and resourcing

We mentor and walk through the restorative process with trafficking survivors in our community and provide a support group that brings encouragement, safe community, and stability for those with a history of commercial sexual abuse. We are always looking for volunteers that have a genuine heart to help with this life changing process. Please contact us with any questions at:

Click Here to Volunteer