This chart shows what Louisiana United Methodist Children and Family Services’ expanding services to Louisiana’s children and families looks like:

As you can see, during the past decade our three children’s homes have provided a very respectable annual average of 41,100 days of residential care to Louisiana’s children. 2016 was something else! Our new Methodist Foster Care program significantly bumped up what we are able to do for children.

In fact, with the help of supporters like you, in 2016 we did something absolutely remarkable for Louisiana’s children: we increased the total of days of care we provided to children by 33% over our 10 year average and provided 60,126 days of care to Louisiana’s children.

How did we do it?

First, we increased occupancy in our children’s homes by 1,061 days of care in 2016 over 2015. That our three children’s homes have high occupancy in Louisiana’s new managed care environment is a very clear statement that our focus on perfecting intensive residential care matters. It matters to children and it matters to their parents and guardians – it matters enough that we have withstood the “friction of managed care”.

Second, the incredibly precious families of our new Methodist Foster Care program provided 18,426 days of Therapeutic Foster Care in 2016. Barely a year old, Methodist Foster Care is still just getting started. To the extent we are able to expand our Therapeutic Foster Care services in 2017, we will provide that much more care. (Methodist Foster Care is actively recruiting, training and certifying Therapeutic Foster Care families. Learn more and join us at MethodistFosterCare.org

I begin 2017 by thanking each of you who supported our work in 2016 with your prayers, connections, resources and contributions. We are grateful for your continued commitment to help us provide care to Louisiana’s children and families!

We exist for a transcendent reason: to respond to the persistent call to be more and do more together for children and families than any of one of us can be or can do alone in pursuit of our mission which calls from us our very best.

In 2016, we did more! In 2017, we will do even more!

Rick Wheat, President and Chief Executive Officer
Louisiana United Methodist Children and Family Services, Inc.