Project 1.27 began in 2004 when Robert Gelinas, Aurora pastor, adoptive dad and community advocate, learned about the 875 Colorado foster children legally free for adoption waiting for an adoptive family. Pastor Gelinas spoke to then Lieutenant Governor Jane Norton, pledging to rally Denver churches to work with county child welfare and find families for these children.
To address this problem, we leveraged our church relationships to raise awareness of children waiting for families, increasing the pool of adoptive families. At the same time, we worked with the State of Colorado to simplify the adoption process by standardizing requirements among Colorado counties and private placement agencies and hiring case managers to guide families.
We continue to provide state-required training and to date we have recruited foster and adoptive families who have cared for well over 1000 children; 437 of these children have been adopted into Project 1.27 families. Currently we have 87 certified foster families, and 95 families in training or in the certification process.
In 2008, Project 1.27 moved from being a local church ministry to become a stand-alone 501c3 organization and in 2010, we began recruiting parents for foster care as well. This change included training foster parents to fully support successful family reunification. While Project 1.27 recruits families within the church community, this being our unique area of expertise and relationships, our families serve all children and youth without discrimination
