In support of the vision of the Child Welfare League of America, a child welfare system that is linked to and operates in partnership with families and communities, Bishop Aaron Blake has been selected to receive a CWLA Community Partnership Award for his “great support and work with the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.”
The award will be presented during the closing lunch session of the CWLA’s 2013 National Conference on April 17th at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia.
Blake currently serves as chair of the Advisory Committee on Promoting Adoption of Minority Children in Texas. He was appointed to serve on the Advisory Committee by the Executive Commissioner of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission based on his extensive ministerial experience and his 13 years of experience with youth in the foster care system. According to officials at Child Protective Services, Blake “has proven to be a passionate advocate for children and families, a strong faith leader for child welfare and a visionary for the partnership between a state agency and the community.”
Blake began his career in pastoral ministry in 1972, serving as a youth pastor under D. C. McNeal in Dallas Texas. In 1975, he founded and began a church he then pastured in Amarillo called Faith Tabernacle. In 1984, he moved to Brownwood, Texas and founded the Greater Faith Community Church, which he has pastured for 29 years. He is the co-founder and executive director of Harvest Family Life Ministry established in 2003 as a partnership between New Horizons child-placing agency (CPA) and the Greater Faith Community Church. As an employee of New Horizons CPA and a faith leader, he has traveled throughout the United States preaching the Harvest Family Life concepts of faith to other pastors and churches. These concepts include the biblical mandate found in James 1:27 that the Church must care for the children in the child welfare system in their community and the firm belief that the Church has stewardship responsibilities to the children and families in their community.
Together with his wife Mary, Bishop Blake led a ministry in his church to engage 20 families to become foster and/or adoptive parents. This outreach led to the placement of 34 foster and adoptive youth. The Blakes themselves have fostered 6 sons who remain a part of their family to this day. The Blakes are also founders of HarvesToday and Small World Child Development Center. HarvesToday is an eight class life coaching series taught by local business professionals to engage and assist members of the community. Small World Development Center opened in 1985 to offer community members much needed child care.
The faith-based community collaborative model he teaches, according to CPS officials, has the potential to increase stability in both foster and adoptive placements for children, decrease removals from biological families, increase a child’s connection with relatives, and achieve permanency for more children.
Bishop Blake is pictured at top left. Photo contributed.