Buckner Foster Care in the Rio Grande Valley

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Buckner has been serving children and families for 135 years. In 1879, Robert C. Buckner, Baptist Pastor, started our first orphanage homes in Dallas Texas. Buckner has grown to be a global, faith based organization dedicated to transforming the lives of the most vulnerable children, families and elders in the United States and around the world. The Rio Grande Children’s Home has been in existence since 1964. It was founded by Reverend Buddy Owens. For 50 years, RGCH has provided a warm, loving and home- like environment for children and sibling groups in an effort to keep families together.

We believe if we transform lives, we change the world. We can do that together through foster care by transforming the lives of children who need a family to love them. We are people compelled by our faith. We believe that we can do this with families who love children and want to give them an opportunity to live a healthy lifestyle and develop significant lifetime relationships. This means “Be a Family!”  This helps children to feel wanted and accepted in order to work through their difficult situations.

Our Buckner Foster Care Program is focused on a lifetime commitment to a child, but it is a commitment to be meaningful in a child’s lifetime. This means that Buckner expects foster parents to be committed to every child in their home. 

The children we serve come from Child Protective Services who have been removed from their home due to abuse and neglect. There are many myths about the children. Many people believe that these children are juvenile delinquents but this is not true. The fact is that children are in foster care for their protection, through no fault of their own. These children have been exposed to many situations which have caused trauma in their life and they need someone to help them through this.

Many times, we hear about horrible stories of children who are moved from home to home to home. Yes, this happens. In order to avoid this from happening, we have skilled staff to assess the families and make a good match with a child.  Buckner finds families for children. Not children for families. Our focus is on the child. We are looking for families committed to the child in front of them. Foster parents should be focused on meeting that child’s needs for as long as the child needs them. We have a lot of teenagers who need foster homes to continue their education and then into independent living.

What is the need?   In Hidalgo County alone, Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services Statistics for Fiscal Year 2013, indicates that 268,484 children came into Child Protective Service.  10,474 were alleged victims of abuse and neglect which were investigated.   1,384 cases are open for services through family preservation and then foster care or substitute care.   As you can see there is an eminent need of foster homes in our community, Buckner is stepping forward to help. Everyday there are children being removed from their home due to abuse and neglect. We are hoping we could find Christ centered families in the community willing to take on the challenge to love and nurture these children.

The Rio Grande Children’s Home in Mission, Texas, recently transitioned from a residential facility to foster care group homes. We are seeking families with big hearts and Christ-centered values to foster our children at the Rio Grande Children’s Group Home. Licensed foster families living in the homes will provide a loving, Christian atmosphere for children and sibling groups in an effort to keep families together. They are able to offer the emotional, spiritual and educational support that these children need to grow in their sense of self-worth and to discover their special purpose in life.

We are also able to license families for foster care in their own homes in the community and are seeking families for our community foster care program as well. Our staff is dedicated to prepare each family for their foster journey ahead and to provide them with support before, during and after the foster care process.

We are so excited about our new programs in the Rio Grande Valley. This is an awesome ministry for families to serve vulnerable children who have suffered abuse and neglect.

As James 1:27 states, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress.”

For more information on foster care in the Rio Grande Valley, please call 956-585-4847 or attend one of our Be a Family information meetings in Mission (second Thursday of every month) or Harlingen (fourth Thursday of every month). Visit us on www.beafamily.org.