DOING GOOD
Local Non-Profit Makes Saving Children, Families Its Mission
Left, Andy Cook, president and CEO of Promise686
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n the United States there are more than 400,000 children in foster care, according to a report from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The same agency reported that in 2019, parental rights were terminated 71,300 times in the U.S., effectively ensuring that they will not return home to their biological parents.
Story and photos by Isadora Pennington
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Looking upstream, there are around 650,000 investigated and confirmed cases of abuse and neglect in the nation. Here in Georgia, there are approximately 12,000 children in foster care, according to the state Department of Family and Children’s Services (DFCS). The national child advocacy organization, the Children’s Defense Fund, estimates that in the United States a child is removed from their home and enters foster care every two minutes. To put it plainly, this is a big problem. The child welfare system of the United States is under serious strain and organizations such as the DFCS are facing unprecedented challenges in helping children. Luckily, they aren’t doing it alone. Enter Promise686, a volunteer
Peachtree Corners Magazine ■ February/March 2022 ■ LivingInPeachtreeCorners.com
organization dedicated to providing pathways for churches to help children and families engaged in the child welfare system. “To the degree that we can enter the story, and our work is to call churches to enter the story sooner, then their journey doesn’t start,” explained Andy Cook, president and CEO of Promise686. “The truth is that in spite of so many well-meaning and wonderful people trying to help in the child welfare system, the longer a child is in that system the worse their outcomes are.” Cook found himself at the helm of this organization by way of his own personal journey of adoption. Cook and his wife Martha adopted two Ethiopian children in 2008. In the years since they added a third biological child and most recently adopted a set of five siblings from right here in
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Georgia. Today, Andy and Martha are parents to 10 children that range from age 8 to age 22. At the time of their initial foray into adoption, Cook was working in administration and teaching at Wesleyan School in Peachtree Corners. He was on the cusp of a drastic career change and was preparing to take the LSAT before pursuing work as a lawyer. “It was all driven out of a heart that wanted to see justice alive, specifically for kids,” said Cook. Eventually, after discussions with his wife, he realized that what he wanted to do was bigger than 40 hours a week: it was an integration of these values into his daily life.
Birth of a ministry At the onset of this process and daunted by the logistical and financial implications of adoption, peachtreecornerslife
