By Baptist and Reflector
BRENTWOOD — Tennessee Baptist Children’s Homes was notified Sept. 9 that it has been accredited by the Council on Accreditation (COA).
On Nov. 6, 2013, the Tennessee Baptist Children’s Homes signed a no-cost operating agreement with the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services to provide Foster Care (Resource) Homes to the state. Part of this agreement required COA accreditation.
“Accreditation involved standardizing our practices organization-wide, and in many cases simply documenting good practices we have always followed,” said Greg McCoy, president-elect of TBCH.
He noted that TBCH staff “were praised by COA peer reviewers for their organization and presentation of necessary materials.
“Likewise, our residential care program was praised for ‘providing everything a youth could need. Each cottage feels like a home, not an institution.’ The reviewers went on to note the ‘outstanding achievements’ of our children statewide,” McCoy said.
He added that the TBCH foster care program “also received high marks for having a large pool of foster families in place, and for the high level of training of our foster care staff.”
TBCH President Bryant Millsaps informed the entity’s trustees of the accreditation. “Achieving this milestone of national recognition of the very high quality of the day-to-day ministry operations in a multitude of areas gives testimony to our history as well as our future commitment to excellence as the standard by which we serve the Lord,” he observed.
Alisha Worthey, vice president of foster care for TBCH, encourages Tennessee Baptists to get involved. “If you’re interested in becoming a foster parent or if you’d like to help a foster family but just don’t know where to start, please give us a call at 1-800-624-8591,” she said.
