OUR MISSION:
Encourage, equip, and connect people to make the gospel visible through adoption, foster, and kinship care rooted in the LOCAL church in the Knoxville, TN area.
KAFCAM is an alliance of churches, agencies, ministries, and community advocates who serve foster, adoptive, and kinship children and families as well as advocate for family preservation when possible. Our members coordinate activities, share lessons learned, provide family support, and raise awareness of needs. KAFCAM was started in 2014 and is currently made up of about 15 churches and over 30 partner organizations.
Who is KAFCAM?
KAFCAM is here to encourage, equip, and connect people to make the gospel visible through
adoption, foster care, and kinship care rooted in the local churches in Knoxville, TN.
We are an alliance of church and community foster care and adoption ministries and
organizations that coordinate activities, share lessons learned, provide family support, and raise
awareness of the needs of vulnerable children in our city. KAFCAM was started in 2014 and is
currently made up of approximately 20 churches and 45 partner organizations. KAFCAM has
remained a strict alliance and is not a non-profit. It is important to us that we not compete for
funding from local churches and partners. KAFCAM is led by a team of eight volunteers from
different churches and agencies across the city.
How KAFCAM Started
In 2013, a local lay church leader Googled “foster care in Knoxville” to find a starting place.
Over ten different agencies populated the results. In 2014, three local churches hosted foster care
and adoption conferences within one month. These churches had similar goals and hosted the
same agencies and trainers, but they were unknowingly duplicating efforts. From these
occurrences, a group of lay leaders from four denominations started meeting. Their goal was to
connect and grow together, and KAFCAM was born.
What We Do
KAFCAM seeks to be a bridge between the local church and vulnerable children in our
community. We do this in several ways.
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We host an Annual Adoption & Foster Care Conference where we bring our partners
together so that attendees can have all their questions regarding adoption and foster care
answered. Whether you are a current or prospective foster or adoptive parent, church
leader, agency representative, or interested in volunteer opportunities, our Annual conference has something for you.
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We host quarterly Community Connection events. Each quarter we target one of our
primary audiences (Faith Leaders, Post-Adoptive/Current Foster Families, Social
Workers, and Prospective Foster and Adoptive Families) and provide an educational
event specific to that audience.
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We email a monthly newsletter with information on all things related to foster care and
adoption in Knox County for the month. Sign up for our monthly newsletter.
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We strive to keep our website up-to-date with relevant resources, current events, and updated partner contact information. You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram.