Liberty Football Joins Forces with Angel Armies to Keep Children out of Foster Care System

More about Liberty University and Angel Armies

Liberty University's football program is partnering with Angel Armies, the non-profit created by Grammy winner Chris Tomlin, to confront the foster care crisis in the United States.

With leadership from Flames Head Coach Hugh Freeze and his wife, Jill Freeze, the team aims to serve as many as 1,000 children during the 2019 season.

There are currently more than 440,000 children in foster care, according to the 2017 U.S. Administration for Children and Families Report on Child Maltreatment. More children come into foster care each year than exit. The most surefire way to keep children out of the foster care system is to support the family in crisis. Angel Armies facilitates this by activating its partners who have boots on the ground in local communities around the country. Family support can be manifested in many ways: physical, relational or familial.

Liberty University Football has formed their own Angel Army to help keep at-risk children in healthy, safe, loving homes and out of the foster care system. The team will respond to needs of children and families across the country using CarePortal, an online platform that connects the needs of at-risk families entered by Child Welfare workers to nearby churches and communities who have signed up to help. It is the sharing economy for kids and family: those with capacity helping those with needs, real-time.

Coach Freeze was looking for a way to have his team serve children and build championship character of his student-athletes in the process. "We got this crazy idea of a college football team meeting the needs of kids and helping keep kids out of the foster care system. Immediately I knew God had answered our prayers," said Coach Freeze.

Here's how the partnership works: Liberty Football has formed 10 huddles based on 10 position groups that include players, position coaches and coaches' wives to cull through a list of real-time needs as identified by Child Welfare Workers and loaded into CarePortal. Each huddle will receive $10k to meet needs throughout the season and will discuss, pray and ultimately agree on which needs they choose to meet. There are local church CareCenters throughout the U.S. to act as the feet-on-the-street to fulfill specific requests as designated by the Liberty football huddles. Once met, the team/huddles are notified of their impact.

"This is a privilege that we get to be a part of building young men to be great husbands, great fathers and great men of their community," said Jill Freeze.

Liberty University's partner in achieving this mission, Angel Armies, gives a voice to the foster care and orphan crisis in the United States through equipping the source of the solution, the Church, with the tools and support needed to solve this issue once and for all. Learn more about Angel Armies at www.angelarmies.com.