About Our Chapter
Our Volunteers
Safe Families for Children surrounds families facing significant life stressors with caring, compassionate community by offering short-tern overnight respite care. What makes Safe Families effective in supporting families is our Circle of Support, which is comprised of volunteer Host Families, Family Friends, Family Coach, and Resource Friends. The Circle of Support wraps around struggling families by providing relationships and resources. We believe it takes a village to raise a child, and Safe Families becomes that village for isolated families.
Our Host Families open their homes to a child of a parent who is experiencing a crisis. Our volunteer families have all been screened and approved to safely care for children. These families host children as young as a day old all the way through young teens. Children stay with a Host Family anywhere from a couple of days to several months with an average stay of 30-45 days. Our families help in the short-term, and they are not seeking to adopt through this organization. Other parents who have been helped by Safe Families for Children have faced issues such as temporary loss of housing or job, hospitalization, feeling overwhelmed, needing time to put a parent plan together, health problems, etc.
Our Team
Our amazing volunteers are the ones who take the Safe Families for Children movement into the community. But they can’t do it alone. They are supported by a staff of professionals passionately investing their lives in engaging churches, building the base of volunteers, transitioning children, family coach supervision, vetting and training volunteers and so much more.
Lucy Bromer
CoordinatorLucy Bromer, MSW serves as a Safe Families for Children Coordinator in Mid-Missouri. She lives in Columbia, Missouri with her husband and two boys. She earned her Master’s degree in Social Work from Tulane University in New Orleans, LA and also has a certificate in Global Social Work. Lucy’s passion for Safe Families started as a volunteer in both Ohio and Missouri where she and her family served in various roles, including Host Family. Lucy is excited to be a part of what God is doing at Bethany through Safe Families in Mid-Missouri.
Rylee Gilbert
CoordinatorRylee serves as a Coordinator with Safe Families for Children. Rylee relocated back to Columbia, Missouri in June 2022 with her husband after spending five years in Georgia. She earned her Master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Rylee previously served as a director of a faith-based placing agency in South Georgia, which is where her passion for serving at-risk and vulnerable populations was jumpstarted. Rylee is excited to be back in Columbia as a member of the SFFC team, serving the community she grew to love while in college.