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The Presbyterian Home for Children respectfully requests your consideration of this appeal for funds to complete our current building campaign.

Our Service to Children

For more than 90 years, the Presbyterian Home for Children has served children whose families could not care for them. At one time, these children were most often orphans. Today, children typically come from situations of extreme family dysfunction. For most, family violence and sexual abuse have been a way of life. Some have parents who are mentally ill or incarcerated. Others have parents who suffer from drug or alcohol addiction. Generally they have little ethical or moral shaping and little experience in setting boundaries for their behavior. There is intense anger in many of these children, and they are at risk of developing lifelong behavior patterns that will cause them hardship and failure.

Here at the Home, we work to reshape and refocus their lives. We care for girls and boys, ages five through 21 years, of all races, faiths and creeds. The need for a strong spiritual base is clearly evident, and while the Home is Presbyterian in history and orientation, it builds upon the faith that each child brings with them. The majority of the children come from western North Carolina. Though licensed for 36 children, enrollment is currently held at 27, for safety reasons untill enough new housing is built.

For some children the need for care at the Home is temporary, and family reunification is a real possibility. Others stay untill permanent foster placement or adoption becomes available. Still others stay through graduation from high school or higher education. In all cases, the Home provides a safe, secure place with healthy life experiences, which enables the children to heal and mature.

When a child is received, his or her situation is addressed. Each child is first made to feel safe. Then, a personalized plan of care is developed to provide: 1-counseling for emotional problems, 2- medical and dental treatment, 3-good nutrition and attention to physical needs, 4-educational assessment and tutoring, 5-family systems and development, and 6-spiritual support. All of the children attend nearby public schools. An Education Coordinator who joined the staff in 1996 oversees each child's education. Under her guidance, school attendance has improved, suspensions have been reduced and grades have changed from many F's and D's to many A's and B's. We now see many important changes taking place within the children-their personal expectations have shifted from fear of failure to yearning for success.

Our Staff

All of our staff members are dedicated to caring for these children as members of our family. Earl Kreisa and his wife Renee, Director and Associate Director of the Home, arrived in August of 1995 full of energy and commitment. Earl had served as an executive director of a mental health association and pastor of several churches over 20 years. Renee has a master's degree in education and is licensed to practice law in North Carolina. She specializes in helping children understand the legal and social service systems that govern their lives. Long-term staffing now centers on employing married couples as house parents to care for the children and serve as role models. The staff also includes an Education Coordinator and a Director of Social Work, who coordinates the work of agencies and tailors services to best meet the individual needs of each child. Our Program Director coordinates the needs of the house parent couples in relation to their service to the children, and works closely with the departments of Social Services to ensure the special needs of individual children are met. The staff includes student interns from four area colleges, who work in the Social Work and Recreation departments, and volunteers who tutor children and help with tasks such as bike maintenance and library management. Area churches provide work crews to help with building and grounds maintenance. A Big Brothers/Big Sisters program is active at the Home as well.

The Home's community-based nature encourages outside evaluation and involvement. Community social workers, teachers, school administrators, counselors, therapists, physicians, church members and businesses come in contact with the children frequently and provide information back to the staff. Also, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Resources evaluates the Home annually as part of its licensing process.

The Building Project

Providing a nurturing home-like environment is key to success with these children. An in-depth assessment of programming and facilities was conducted in 1996. Strategic planning followed. Programming changes were initiated, and programming is now demonstrably more effective. We are now tackling the problem of improving the physical surroundings with a $3 million building and renovation program. It includes:

Construction of Four New Houses: The heart of the building program is the construction of four new free-standing family style houses. These residential units will replace the 1923 "state of the art" dormitory, where children live on long hallways, with one bathroom per hall. The four new houses will provide less chaotic living in a small, family-like environment. Each is designed to house nine children and two rotating house parent couples. Both girls and boys will live in the houses, an arrangement more reflective of family life. Living together, they will learn to respect gender-based differences and to work cooperatively with each other. Siblings will have the opportunity to live in the same house. The residential arrangement will allow children to participate in chores which teach basic life skills. They will plan meals, cook, eat together at a dining room table and take part in laundry and cleaning. They will experience being a part of a working family, witnessing couples working together successfully, without violence. All of this will provide a model when they leave the home and begin families of their own. These smaller homes will provide more flexible living spaces, in order to meet changing needs in the future.

The first house was completed in April of 1998. It has proved to be a very successful design, and the children living there are noticeably calmer in the smaller, family-like setting. The house functions well and shows low energy consumption. It is serving as a model for the next three houses. The second house is not 80% completed; the third already has walls. The fourth house will open by the year 2000. Its completion will allow us to increase safe resident capacity from 27 to 36.

Addition to the Gymnasium: Once the houses are completed and the children settled into new quarters, construction will begin on an addition to the gymnasium, which currently houses a basketball court, weight room and bathrooms. This will provide new avenues for recreation, including physical activities and crafts, plus providing new outlets for stress and anger and new opportunities for creativity. The basement of the addition will house maintenance and storage equipment.

Renovation of the Main Building: Finally, the main building will be renovated. Its kitchen and dining hall have damaged floor joists and serious roof leaks that cannot be repaired, so this part of the building will be demolished. Renovation will transform the old dormitory into space for the library, a computer center, music and art activities, counseling, tutoring and administration. Some rooms will be used for new programs such as family overnight visits, which occur prior to family re-unification, foster placement or adoption. The building will also include a place for house parents to rejuvenate on their days and nights off duty.

The Building Project will complete our work to provide greatly improved programming and facilities. Our next major effort will be to develop more systematic ways to maintain contact with children once they leave the home, so we can begin to record how the children fare throughout their lives and how they have been affected by their time at the Home.

Maintaining a Balanced Budget

The Building Project has provided us with the opportunity to spread the word about our work with children. We have recruited support from numerous individuals, dozens of corporations and many foundations. Several additional foundations are now reviewing proposals. The process of running a campaign has greatly improved our ability to develop gift support from donors, and the Development Office, established during the campaign, will continue work after the campaign concludes. Strategic planning has improved our donor tracking systems, the annual fund, and major and planned giving programs. The endowment has grown by $1 million in the past three years and now stands at $4.2 million. Our concerted efforts have shown great success, and it is a priority to maintain a strong fundraising program. The Home currently operates with a balanced budget, and we will continue to do so.

The Home is a member of a multi-agency alliance, working toward coordinating placements so as to provide a broad spectrum of coordinated, unduplicated care for children. The services provided by the Home are in great demand in western North Carolina, where rates of child neglect and abuse are higher than the national average. The Home serves 27 children at a time, about 40 each year, and there are children waiting for placement. With the bed spaces added in the new buildings, the Home will house 36 children at a time, about 50 per year. It is unlikely that any of these spaces will be unfilled. Although costs will increase with more children, Departments of Social Services pay on a per child basis.

The Impact of Our Work

The Presbyterian Home for Children has provided crucial services to the region's neediest children for more than nine decades. The children who come to the Home today come from more complex and difficult situations than ever before. Through no fault of their own, they are at risk of living lives of hardship and failure. The Home is dedicated to helping them reshape and refocus their lives. New facilities, combined with improvements in programming and the ongoing work of a caring staff, offer much promise for these children.

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