Chestnut Mountain Village
A ministry of Chestnut Mountain Ranch
CarePortal is a care sharing technology that drives action for local children and families in crisis. Watch this short video to see how CarePortal connects local churches and community members to meet the urgent needs of children and families.
Contact The Village today to learn how your church can be part of this life-changing work.
NOTE: CarePortal is currently available only in select counties in North Central West Virginia.
What if the most transformative solutions in foster care don’t come from better policies or expanded programs—but from the restoration of broken relationships?
That’s the core question posed by Praxis, a nonprofit that equips faith-driven founders and innovators to build ventures marked by justice, mercy, and lasting impact. In their recent publication, “A Redemptive Thesis for Foster Care,” they offer not a policy checklist, but a visionary framework—one that invites us to reimagine the foster care system as a space for healing, dignity, and belonging.
Rather than focusing solely on what’s broken, Praxis challenges us to invest not just in what works—but also in what heals: people, especially the adults who shape a child’s daily reality.
Too often, the foster care conversation centers on system improvement. But what if we started by strengthening the adults around the child—birth parents, foster families, caseworkers, and kin?
When adults are supported, children benefit. This means rethinking how we care for foster parents so they don’t burn out, how we equip caseworkers for trauma-informed leadership, and how we treat struggling parents not as cases, but as people with potential for restoration.
The current system often acts only after harm has occurred. A Redemptive Thesis for Foster Care invites us to shift from reaction to prevention—building networks of care that respond before crisis escalates.
This is the heart of redemptive imagination: believing that proactive, relational investment can do more than any policy tweak. It means engaging neighbors, nonprofits, and churches that serve foster families and children in care—walking with families, not just when they fall apart, but so they don’t have to.
Across the country, some ministries are helping churches step into this space—guiding and equipping them to care well for foster, adoptive, kinship, and vulnerable families in their own communities.
In a state like West Virginia, where the foster care system serves many children and families facing complex challenges, this redemptive lens offers a hopeful shift.
The thesis doesn’t critique—it inspires. It suggests that while system improvements are necessary, lasting change will come when communities are mobilized to restore relationships, surround families with support, and re-humanize every actor in the process.
That includes entrepreneurs who build tools for caregivers, churches that serve as extended family, and civic leaders who prioritize belonging over bureaucracy. These are the builders of a better future—one rooted in connection, not control.
Ultimately, Praxis’s redemptive thesis calls us to rethink success—not just as fewer entries into foster care, but as more families held together. Not just case closures, but long-term relationships that lead to healing.
Foster care may never be simple—but it can be sacred. If we’re willing to build it around healing instead of just control, we might find a path forward that changes lives for generations.
📖 Read the full thesis here:
https://journal.praxis.co/a-redemptive-thesis-for-foster-care-d44d98e5c231
In West Virginia, we can pursue a bold and achievable vision: More Than Enough for every child and family impacted by foster care. That means more than enough foster and kinship families, more than enough support for biological families, and more than enough wraparound care from churches and communities across our state. A vision like this cannot be achieved by individual efforts of organizations or people. It takes effective collaboration and common strategy to achieve such transformation.
But this kind of collaboration doesn’t begin with vision alone—it starts with trust. Because at the end of the day, organizations don’t collaborate, people do.
To help strengthen relationships and build that foundation of trust, we’re providing you with a simple but powerful tool: “Building Trust Together,” a resource created by the More Than Enough Initiative at the Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO).
This one-page guide outlines three key commitments that can help churches, agencies, and individuals work together with greater humility, clarity, and unity. Whether you’re launching a new partnership or deepening an existing one, it’s a resource that can help keep the focus on what matters most—our shared mission for West Virginia’s children. To quickly build trust with other members of your collaboration, you can present this document to new partners and collaborators – and use it to shape your commitment to one another.
Let’s keep building—not just programs, but relationships that last—so that More Than Enough becomes reality in every West Virginia community.
Across the country, and especially in West Virginia, the foster care system is often described with the same words: not enough.
Not enough foster families.
Not enough support for biological parents.
Not enough beds, caseworkers, or solutions.
The More Than Enough vision, championed by CAFO (Christian Alliance for Orphans), offers a bold alternative: a future where every community has more than enough for every child and family who needs it.
Achieving More Than Enough isn’t just about adding more programs or recruiting a few more families. It’s about reshaping entire ecosystems of care — mobilizing churches, nonprofits, businesses, and local leaders to work together in deep, coordinated ways.
This approach mirrors the principles of Collective Impact, as outlined in a classic 2011 article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review by the same name. You can download this article below. Collective Impact teaches us that large-scale social change requires:
In foster care, real change won’t happen through isolated efforts. It requires communities to act together — each lifting part of the weight — to complete the “foster care puzzle” of needs around vulnerable children and families.
More Than Enough isn’t just a slogan. It’s an achievable reality when churches, nonprofits, and community members move with unified purpose, clear structure, and shared ownership.
Together, we can replace “not enough” with a new story in the Mountain State: one of hope, healing, and more than enough for every child who needs it.
It is no secret that child welfare is incredibly challenging in West Virginia. The number of West Virginia children in care remains the highest per capita in the nation and thousands of the state’s children are being primarily raised by family members who are not their parents. On top of these difficult statistics, West Virginia Child Protective Services consistently deals with high turnover and vacancy rates among its child welfare professionals.
Did you know that when a child in foster care experiences a change in their caseworker, their chances of finding a permanent home drop dramatically from 74.5% to just 17.5%? It’s a heart-wrenching statistic that we can’t ignore.
Enter National Hospitality Week!
From October 15-21, Chestnut Mountain Village, in partnership with various organizations and churches, is bringing National Hospitality Week to West Virginia. The initiative is all about showering our hard-working child welfare professionals, especially those tireless CPS workers in West Virginia, with gratitude and support.
Why, you ask?
Well, when these professionals feel appreciated and seen, they’re less likely to leave their roles. This means more stability for the children who desperately need it.
How Can You Pitch In?
Spread the Word: Talk about it! Share this blog post, tweet about it, or bring it up in your church or with other organizations.
Connect Locally: Organize or participate in events in your area that recognize and appreciate child welfare professionals. Let them know that their efforts don’t go unnoticed.
Engage Online: Visit the National Hospitality Week website to dive deeper. You can register, access resources, or gather ideas to enhance your involvement.
Join Hospitality Week with The Village: Interested in participating in West Virginia? The Village can assist you in kickstarting your journey, linking with local CPS offices and other community members already championing National Hospitality Week. To contact The Village:
By getting involved in National Hospitality Week, we’re taking a collective step forward. It’s more than just a pat on the back for these professionals—it’s about ensuring that every child in the foster system has a fighting chance at a brighter future.
Let’s rally together for this cause!
Thank you for reading and or being a part of this National Hospitality Week. 🌟
Chestnut Mountain Village
Foster care is hard, tragic, and wonderful. It is messy but beautiful. Foster parent, adoptive mom, and Bible Center Church Outreach Director, Michelle Thompson, speaks candidly and personally about foster care as part of a panel at the 2022 West Virginia All In Foster Care Summit.
The 2022 All In Foster Care Summit was held at Chestnut Ridge Chruch in Morgantown, West Virginia on May 17, 2022. This excerpt was part of a panel titled “A Mountain State Discussion: Foster, Adoptive, and Kinship Care Across West Virginia.”
Michelle Thompson has served on the staff at Bible Center Church in Charleston, WV since 2002. At Bible Center, she oversees both local and global outreach through such programs as Adoption and Foster Care Ministries, homeless outreach, Thomas Baby Steps Hospitality Room, The Makers’ Center, May We Serve, and others. Michelle has a Bachelor’s degree in Theology and Christian Education from Andersonville Theological Seminary and a Master of Arts degree in Christian Counseling & Psychology from Southwest Bible College and Seminary. Michelle is passionate about Jesus and the difference a relationship with Him makes in people’s lives. She also enjoys All-Things-Leadership and the study of personalities. She and her husband, Richard, have seven children and three grandchildren.
This unique event will be held on May 3, 2023, at River Ridge Church Teays Valley.
Chestnut Mountain Village’s 2nd annual “All In Foster Care Summit” is being held at River Ridge Church Teays Valley in Hurricane, West Virginia. The May 3, 2023 Summit is a transformative event aimed at improving the state of foster care in West Virginia. With West Virginia having the highest rate of children in foster care in the nation, the system is struggling to keep up. However, with the collaboration of families, churches, and community partners, we can all make a tremendous impact on solving the problems.
The Summit is a platform for like-minded individuals, church leaders, members of foster/kinship care organizations, and anyone interested in reforming foster care to come together and make a positive change in the lives of God’s most vulnerable children and families. The Summit will feature national and state child welfare experts, including:
Check-in for the Summit will begin at 8 AM on Wednesday, May 3 and the Summit sessions will run from 9 AM to 4:30 PM. For more information on the Summit.
Join churches, organizations, and people from across the state in praying for those impacted by foster care in West Virginia.
Download The Foster Care Prayer Guide to follow along during February 2023!!
Child welfare is an incredibly important issue in the Mountain State. This is especially true right now. The systems are strained, there is more work than the available workforce, there is a consistent need for more foster families, and the work is incredibly complex.
It is easy to focus on the data and be overwhelmed. West Virginia leads the nation in the number of children per capita in foster care. Our rate of removal of children is high compared to the rest of the United States. There are many challenges, and child welfare is a big, complex, and emotional issue. Download The Foster Care Prayer Guide by clicking on the image.
Yet, there is always a reason for hope.
Here at Chestnut Mountain Village, we believe that when problems seem insurmountable, our source of hope and guidance has to be something – or someone – other than ourselves. We believe that it is times like these when we must all come unified and humbly to the God of the Universe and ask Him to guide, strengthen, and give hope to every person involved.
Therefore, in conjunction with our friends at the Christian Alliance for Orphans (“CAFO”), The Village is providing the included Foster Care Prayer Guide to West Virginia churches, pastors, community leaders, and citizens. We ask, for those of you who are interested and willing, that you use this guide throughout the month of February to take time and pray for 24 specifically identified groups of people in our communities and state who are touched by foster care.
You can use The Foster Care Prayer Guide to pray for a different group of people each day over 24 days. Alternatively, you could set weekly prayer times or even gather with others for prayer vigils. Regardless of how you go about it, please join us in praying during February 2023 for all of these people in your own communities and state.