HCS Mission Statement

Mission
    We  who recognize God's providence and fidelity to his people are dedicated to living by "Faith", and to share that faith among ourselves and those children we serve, with absolute respect and unconditional love. That commitment calls us to serve suffering children of the street, and to protect and safeguard all children.  
Just as Jesus Christ in his humanity is the visible sign of God's presence among his people, so our efforts together in the "HCS-Volunteers of Fai†h" family are a visible sign that effects the presence of God, working through the Holy Spirit among ourselves and our children.

Vision
   As the return of our Lord Jesus approaches, Hope for the Children of the Street, will continue to fulfill its mission by providing shelter and services to children and youth who are homeless or at great risk. Our services will be offered to all youth who seek help, with a priority of concern and commitment to those for whom no other service is available.;          

• †  We will make every effort to reunite children with their families.

• †  We will collaborate with community agencies and associations and actively participate in community efforts to improve the condition of families and children.

• †  We will advocate with and on behalf of youth to raise awareness in the community about their suffering.

 Our mission is based on faith in an ALMIGHTY and LOVING GOD, and the belief that all children and youth have a right to receive love, respect and genuine concern. Our individual and shared faith and spirituality will permeate all of our activities.               

Principles Our work with the Street Children is based on 5 core principles,  they are the foundation we build from.

Immediacy                                                                                                                                                  

The principle of Immediacy is related to the aspects that must be a priority for the street boys and girls. Children come to us in crisis. Children that come to our program are abandoned both materially and, particularly, emotionally. Immediately, without questions and no other requirements but the child's acceptance, we meet their basic human needs - a hot, nutritious meal; a shower; clean clothes; medical attention, and a safe place away from the perils of the street.  The importance of the principle of Immediacy is based on identifying the priorities for the children. With the principle of Immediacy we take the first step in the journey of giving Hope back to the children. 

Sanctuary

The children who come to us are generally frightened and mistrustful. Our role is to protect them from the perils of the street. Youngsters can only grow when they feel safe and secure. The trust that a child deposits in the educators and in the adults that surrounded him must be protected as the child's right to his intimacy. Sanctuary, by definition, creates an environment of trust. In saying trust we are talking about the security and discretion we offer and we want to receive from anyone. The principle of sanctuary involves unconditional respect for the children's intimacy, without making value judgments regarding the person or his or her actions. Absolute respect for the child, separate from the information that they may give --- whether we believe it or not --- without making the child feel uncomfortable with unnecessary questions and without making value judgments regarding the child's actions.

Value Communication

Lying, cheating, and stealing are common survival tools on the street. We teach the children, by example, that caring relationships are based on Faith in God, trust, respect and honesty. The values we propagate are love, respect, honesty, sincerity, solidarity, justice, responsibility, etc. Values that are both a belief and an alternative lifestyle. When we try to change an attitude or conduct, we have to suggest and create alternatives together with the children.

Structure

Children on the street never know how they will find their next meal or where they will sleep. We provide a regular schedule that gives them the stability they need in order to focus on the future. In HCS - the structure is based on the principles, guidelines, rules, limits and agreements that make possible its operation. Finally, to give an alternative to the chaos that involves living on the streets, We establish clear expectations in each program and define the necessary limits to distinguish HCS- from the streets

Choice

We think that any boy or girl that decides to abandon their home and family to live on the streets, are capable of differentiating between several options and choose the most convenient, even if in the end their option is to live on the streets. Young people often feel powerless to control their lives, and fall into a self defeating cycle of failure. We encourage children to believe in themselves and to make serious choices about their future. Under the principle of Choice, HCS wants the child to take the decisions from his or her personal conviction and not from an external imposition, so the child feels ownership of the HCS Process.

Core Values Our belief in a provident God compels us to:

Love: To treat everyone with unconditional love.  
Respect:  To treat everyone with absolute respect.  
Service: To Help all who ask for help and serve those children at greatest risk.
Advocacy: To protect and safeguard all children and speak out on their behalf.
Family: To support families and reunite children with their families whenever possible. 

   At HCS, we establish a commitment that not only means a promise, but the strong will to do something concrete for the children we serve. A commitment that leads us to serve street children, whom rarely have been served.

We call the HCS "Volunteers of Fai†h" those who give their responsible and conscious help to these children, with respect and unconditional love.

Throughout their short lives, these street boys and girls have been shouted at and abused, considered worthless in a world where love is always conditioned. Where "I love you because I expect something from you; I'm interested in your body, your money or anything that I could profit from". Where the street children are seen as objects that can be used.

HCS is here so the children know they have someone offering them unconditional love, based on honesty and mutual respect. We, those who work here, are responsible to transmit and develop, along with the children, this new form of living and human relationships. These messages of HCS cannot be found on the streets.

We love street children, expelled from their homes; unaccented. Children who's lives have been a continuous tragedy, and whom no longer believe in love. It is these unprotected children whom we choose to serve, and to any child who comes to our door, we give the protection and care he or she needs.
We have the task to educate the children as if they were our own flesh and blood. Unconditional love has no limits and leads us to say: "Because we love you, we tell you that what you are doing could make you unhappy or cause you harm".

Love has the right to demand. It is love that allows us to indicate the harm that a child may do to himself, it is in this moment when we have to intervene. Only from the commitment of love it is possible to demand, that is, to ask for the reasons for this or that attitude or action. We understand the Fai†h Covenant that God establish with His people, as an always present and unconditional bond of love between Him to all of us.

Following His example and filled with His spirit, HCS and the "Volunteers of Fai†h" decide to make the commitment to serve street children as a result of His love. Far from being just an program made up of people, HCS has all the characteristics of a "Family "in which Volunteers play a major roll. We understand, we are all necessary and, despite our occasional differences, we work for a common goal.

As God in His infinite goodness never abandoned His people, we feel that the child can get angry, insult us, reject the love that we give to him/her, etc., but yet we still love him/her. We neither will abandon "our" people ..the STREET CHILDREN. It is the kind of love that can not be negotiated, the one that does not ask for anything. The child has the right to be loved for the simple fact of being.

Please pray about becoming a part of "HCS-Volunteers of Fai†h" and come and help us share God's love and give Hope back to the Children of the Streets.