GOAL: To develop a program for children in need of a permanent home because of abuse or neglect that provides a family-oriented, intergenerational, community-based model of support.

BACKGROUND: A strong sense of family and community are important in the normal healthy development of children. For children in the foster care system, healthy caring relationships are too often replaced with lawyers, courts, therapists, overworked social workers and multiple impersonal placements. A sense of belonging and permanence gets lost in an extended battle over "rights." The delays built into the legal system to protect the rights of all parties involved ignores the need for urgency as children need to develop a sense of permanence. The neglect and damage caused by the foster care system can equal the neglect and abuse that brought the child into the foster care system. A survey of prisoners in Illinois found that 80 percent had spent some time in foster care as children. Twenty percent of children living in runaway shelters come directly from foster care. Sixty percent of the homeless population in municipal shelters in New York City are former foster children.

These statistics bare out the fact that our present system has a poor record of repairing the damage done to children from abusive or neglectful families.

PROGRAM PHILOSOPY: The Baltimore group is interested in developing an urban model in replicating the Hope program. It is our belief that a program serving a mostly urban, minority population should not be located geographically distant from the communities where the children have resided. The dislocation and disruption caused by leaving the community and the familiar supports it provides (i.e., schools, friends, churches, youth groups) compounds the loss of contact with the child's family. An urban program can be established that provides a safe, healthy, caring, educationally strong environment by careful selection of the community in which to locate the program.

For any program to be successful three qualities must be present. First, the program has to be comprehensive in the range of services and supports that it provides. The causes of family dysfunction are numerous and varied requiring the range of supports to be comprehensive. Second, the program has to be intensive in its intervention to have the necessary level of support to be successful. Finally, the program has to be flexible to remain responsive to the needs as the situation changes.

The present system operates in a fragmented manner that responds to the needs of the courts, natural parents and social service system and may not be responsive to the needs of the children. The conflict that is built within the legal system and dictates many aspects of the foster care system is often at odds with the emotional needs of the children involved in the foster care system. The Hope program will work on a team concept which would involve the parents, professionals, natural families and senior citizens all attempting to place the emotional needs of the children first.

Once placement outside the home has been determined to be necessary, a plan would be developed to keep as many community supports in place to minimize the disruptions in the child's life. Contacts with friends, schools, churches, clubs and families will be maintained if warranted.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION: The program will provide housing to 20 families and 40 senior citizens. The family housing will be large enough to accommodate eight people and the senior citizen housing can accommodate one to two people. Each senior residence would have space for children to sleep over at certain times. Seniors will be linked with families and children in a partnership arrangement. Seniors would receive subsidized housing in return for volunteer hours to the program.

A project this size will require most of one city block. By having an entire block, an inside common area can be developed for community interaction and social events. A courtyard with recreational and social areas would be developed. This area would be the focus of interaction among residents of the project. The area would have trees, a playground, volleyball and basketball courts, and a picnic area. Off street parking would also be located in this area.

Two of the units would be renovated to create a community space that could be used for child care, senior programming, teen activities, educational activities and community meetings and dinners. This space would also house the offices of the project staff.

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