About Us - Children Should Never Be Alone
Our Mission/Purpose Statement: One Church, One Child of Washington State dba UJIMA Community Services, is a unique African American non-profit, non-sectarian licensed child placement agency which is engaged and co-strengthened as we walk beside our empowered children the families that care for them.
Our Vision/Goal Statement: Out of every ONE CHURCH/community, at least one family to come forward and support ONE CHILD and his/her family:· Keeping children home, and if they are in the system, Bringing Our Children Home· Recruiting families for kinship care, foster care, and adoption· Supporting our children and the families that care for them· Working toward the elimination of disproportional representation of children of color in the Washington State foster care system· Culturally appropriate, permanent families for all children.
Our Philosophy Statement: We believe that kinship, culture, race and ethnicity are important considerations in all children’s futures and that kinship families and/or families of like culture, ethnicity and/or racial background have historically demonstrated the ability to equip children with skills and strengths, rooted by their personal experiences.
Our Values Statement:
1. OCOC/UJIMA believes in social justice for children and their families and that the community is a strong, vital resource in supporting them
2. Our agency believes in making placement decisions based on the individual needs of each child and the family’s ability to meet those needs. Our values are based on the following:
a. The right of every child to a permanent, appropriate family who recognizes preservation of the child’s ethnic and cultural heritage as an inherent right
b. The right of every child in “the system” to have as few placements as possible and permanence as soon as possible
c. The right of families to services which assist them in making the best choices and decisions for our children and which support the creation of safe, healthy, developmentally appropriate home environments
d. The right of the child to have placement preference of (kinship) an adult relative or adult with significant relationship to the child who meets all relevant child protection standards over non-related third parties
3. As an African American agency, we believe our Board of Directors and executive leadership should reflect the African American heritage of our clients.
4. Our agency provides services to all families and children on anon-discriminatory basis.
5. Our agency structures our programs and fees to ensure financial barriers are removed.
6. Our agency believes in the worth of each individual and respect for each other’s diversity. We treat each other with dignity and we recognize the value that each brings to the business and community relationship.
7. Our agency believes in meeting the needs of connection and identity, which is in the best interest of the child.
8. Our agency fulfills, for our agency, all of the obligations of the Multiethnic Placement Act as amended by the Interethnic Adoption Provisions of 1996. This law says that agencies cannot delay or deny children the right to a family nor the family’s right to foster or adopt a child based on race, color or national origin and that there must be diligent recruitment of families that reflect the diversity of children in need of placement.
UJIMA Community Services, following the mandates of the law (MEPA as Ammended in 1996), works primarily in King County, Snohomish County, and Pierce County specializing in the recruitment, training, licensing, and support of families for foster care, adoption, and kinship care placement of African American children, and all children, in Washington State.
