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In addition to having a place to call home, youth will receive support and training in financial literacy, navigating health insurance and career planning. The Home will help youth start savings and checking accounts and provide opportunities for job shadowing. Residents are required to attend college, trade or technical school, but the Home will help secure financial assistance. Already, a handful of youth currently living at the Home are preparing to enter the new program when they graduate from high school in May 2008. The students have been involved with the new building’s design and planning process. The Independent Living Program will give youth “a reason for them to stay and finish high school, versus turning 18 and moving in with a friend down the street — which has happened so much in the past,” Campbell said. For more than 100 years, the Presbyterian Home for Children has provided a safe and supportive environment for abused, abandoned and neglected children in Western North Carolina. The new program will support youth as they transition out of the child welfare system into independence. “As a system of care, one of the things we can improve on is reaching out to kids aging out of the system,” Campbell said. The Home originally planned for its new building to house 12 youth. But through the generosity of developers, architects and donors, the Home now plans to serve nearly double the number of youth in enhanced facilities. “We’re blessed to be able to move pretty quickly here,” Campbell said. “And Eckerd has been a key piece of it.” |
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