The children come from families that are experiencing a crisis of one sort or another. Such crises might include financial problems, unemployment and homelessness. In other cases, children come from families in which the parent has an unexpected stay in hospital or needs time to heal physically or emotionally. Some children come from families in which the mother is being abused. Still other families are thrown into crisis when a parent is remanded to a correctional institution.

While these and other kinds of crises are traumatic, they also offer the opportunity for positive personal and familial transformations. Acceptance of the child into SFC is based on whether a Host Family is available to care for that child when placement is being requested. Some Host Families can accept sibling groups.