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History and Vision
History
As missionaries with Great Commission Ministries since 2000, Dan and Julie Clark have had the opportunity to serve a variety of populations including American college students at New Life/Mosiac, members of an inner-city church plant in Hampton, VA and church planters and orphaned children in Kiev, Ukraine. They were on staff with Children’s HopeChest from 2004/2005-2009 working with orphan graduates and women in crisis. They saw the need for a nonprofit with the focus of early intervention and prevention in the lives of orphaned children and vulnerable women and families, and launched doma in August 2008.
doma empowers women and embraces children at ConnectionPoints in Ethiopia, Uganda, Ukraine, and Russia. doma seeks to meet opportunities as presented by their communities and responds to each with individualized programming: a children’s center in Uganda, early intervention with baby houses in Ukraine, parenting and mentorship for vulnerable women in Russia and human trafficking survivors in the US.
Vision
doma exists to…
Extend health to vulnerable young families and children.
Equip parents and educators through early intervention, training, encouragement, and counseling.
Empower children by meeting basic living needs, supplying tools for emotional and spiritual health, and through education & job training.
Embrace children and young families with God’s grace and the love of a family.
doma strives to…
intervene in the lives of children and families before needs evolve into crisis situations.
Research proves that social and emotional competence, patterns, and skills of a child are determined by age five. It takes four times longer to modify even one unhealthy pattern learned in these early years than to teach the healthy pattern from the start. This process of rehabilitation requires intensive, professionally researched strategies.
Early intervention is a key component to doma. While rehabilitative and crisis intervention programs are valuable, we believe that reaching vulnerable children and families during the early years of social development and during the early stages of need helps to form identity and mold positive social, emotional, and familial patterns. If we equip a young child with tools for resiliency, they have a much higher chance for lifelong success.
Similarly, one can intervene in parenthood while vulnerable families are yet malleable. Single mothers/fathers and young married couples can learn to bond with their children, learn healthy discipline techniques and strategies for raising a child, and can develop tools for spiritual formation of one’s self and children while the child is not yet born — instead of intervening after the family has dissolved, when such interventions tend to be band-aids for bigger problems due to unhealthy family relationships.
We believe in holistic care, and we actively empower women and children to live healthy, full lives!
Faith Statement
- We believe that God cares for vulnerable parents and children, and that God calls us to do the same (Exodus 22:22-24; Deut 10:17-19; Deut 24: 17-22; Deut 27:19; Psalm 10:14; Psalm 68:4-5; Psalm 82:1-4; Psalm 146:6-9; Isaiah 1:17; Isa 10:1-2).
- We believe that Jesus Christ cares for vulnerable parents and children, and that he calls us to do the same. (Mark 10: 13-16; Luke 7:11-15; Luke 8:51-56; Luke 18:15-17; Galatians 2:10; James 1:27).
- We believe that God shows no favoritism and honors all those who care for the poor and needy (Matthew 25:31-46; Acts 10:30-34).
- We believe that each individual is on a unique faith and healing journey. To respect that journey, we do not require doma volunteers or program participants to be professing Christians. All of our spiritual development programs available to vulnerable parents and children are optional.
- We believe that God actively rebuilds, renovates, and transforms.
