FaithBridge Foster Care achieves national accreditation

Alpharetta, GA – FaithBridge Foster Care, Georgia’s largest Christ-centered child placement agency, has been awarded national accreditation as certified by the New York-based Council on Accreditation (COA), an independent accreditor of community-based social service organizations in the United States and Canada.

Of 178 licensed private child welfare providers in Georgia, FaithBridge becomes only the 16th such organization to earn the prestigious accreditation, a year-long process. The COA evaluated all aspects of FaithBridge Foster Care’s programs, services, management and governance in awarding the accreditation.

“This is a great milestone for FaithBridge,” said Bob Bruder-Mattson, FaithBridge Foster Care President and CEO. “We could not have done this without the combined efforts of our staff, board, church partners, and foster families. We chose to pursue the rigorous COA Accreditation to have an objective, independent organization closely examine us so that we strive for the highest standards possible.”

The COA accreditation process involves a detailed review and analysis of an organization’s administration, management, and service delivery functions against international standards of best practices.

“Accreditation demonstrates that we are 100 percent dedicated to children,” said Charles Evans, FaithBridge board member and president of the International Health Services Group. “The process and basic standards required to achieve accreditation assure that the children in our care are safe.”

The process validates that services are well-coordinated, culturally competent, evidence-based, outcomes-oriented, and provided by a skilled and supported workforce. COA accreditation demonstrates accountability in the management of resources, sets standardized best practice thresholds for service and administration, and increases organizational capacity and accountability by creating a framework for ongoing quality improvement.

“Going through this process has challenged us to find even better ways to serve our families and the foster children in their care,” said Bruder-Mattson. “At the end of the day, accreditation is about doing the best we can for Georgia’s children. .”

About COA :

An endorsement of COA and the value of its accreditation process is reflected in it being named by the US State Department as the sole national independent accrediting body under the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption to accredit intercountry adoption service providers. In addition, COA is the only national accreditor designated by the U.S. Department of Defense to develop accreditation standards and processes for human service programs provided to military personnel and their families.

Founded in 1977, COA is an independent, not-for-profit accreditor of the full continuum of community-based behavioral health care and social service organizations in the United States and Canada. Over 2,000 organizations — voluntary, public, and proprietary; local and statewide; large and small — have either successfully achieved COA accreditation or are currently engaged in the process. Presently, COA has a total of 47 service standards that are applicable to over 125 different types of programs. To learn more about COA, please visit www.COAnet.org.

About FaithBridge Foster Care:

FaithBridge Foster Care is Georgia’s largest Christ-centered Child Placement Agency (CPA). They recruit, train, and support foster care families in local churches and license them to provide community-based, short- and long-term traditional and therapeutic care for foster children in Georgia. FaithBridge Foster Care’s vision is for every foster child to experience the hope, healing, and unconditional love of Jesus Christ and their mission is to mobilize, organize, and equip local churches to solve their community’s foster care crisis.

They pioneered the Community of Care® model which is designed to surround every foster family with a network of trained volunteers and professionals providing the support they need to provide safe and stable homes for foster children. Each family is also paired with a FaithBridge Foster Family Consultant who will walk through the journey of foster care with each parent. Since 2007, FaithBridge has served more than 1,200 children in foster care through partnering with 73 churches. For more information, please visit www.faithbridgefostercare.org.