By Jennifer Jacob / staff writer
The site of Hope Village has served as a children's group home since the late 1800's, providing a place for generation after generation of children who don't have suitable homes of their own.
For decades upon decades the site was a Masonic home, open only to the children of Masons, but as membership in the Masons dwindled, so did the number of children who used the home.
In 2000, the site was purchased by Hope Village For Children. At the time, it was still in use as a Masonic Home, but only two children lived there. Homes were found for them, and Hope Village moved in, making the facility available to far more children than before.
Hope Village is a refuge for troubled children for whom the foster care system has not worked. Most of the children there have been abused in one way or another, and have been shunted from foster home to foster home over and over again because most foster parents just don't have the training to handle them.
"Anything we can do to keep the kids from moving," said Executive Director Tina Aycock, "because movement is the most destructive thing in the foster care system."
At Hope Village, which is staffed by therapists and licensed social workers, these children have a place where they can be cared for by experts who know how to help them deal with the way the world has treated them.
One of the best aspects of Hope Village is that it is a home to children of all ages and of both genders, helping to eliminate separation of siblings.
Aycock said part of the beauty of Hope Village is that children there are nurtured and treated as individuals. Talents, such as music, sports, or art, are encouraged, and, she said, kids' GPA's increase by 250 percent when they move into Hope Village.
Hope Village kids, she said, continue to receive support even after they leave the home. Although the organization no longer receives state funding for children who have left, Aycock said they do all they can to help the children go to and pay for college.
Aycock said she believes that Hope Village solves, for its children, many of the problems caused when a child is removed from a home and put into the custody of the state. She believes, like many, that the foster care system is severely flawed.
In many cases the children "are being more abused and battered inside the system" than they were in their homes, Aycock said.
The bureaucracy, she said, isn't working for Mississippi's children.
Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant visited Hope Village Monday to find out what parts of the system Aycock wants to see changed, and to view the new transitional homes that Hope Village is working with Habitat for Humanity to provide for young adults who grew up at Hope Village.
The transitional homes, which Aycock said will be completed next month, will provide a place for responsible, independent Hope Village children to go when they turn 18. To stay in one of the homes, children must have a job, attend school, and have a recommendation from Hope Village staff.
The idea is to help the kids transition in the "real world," instead of cutting them off the moment they turn 18. The homes, which will be shared by four kids at a time, help them learn how to take care of themselves and eventually move into homes of their own.
"These kids are ready to be independent, so we help them get apartments, and all the things you would do for your own child," Aycock said.
Bryant, who has experience with underprivileged children through his past work in a Big Brothers/Big Sisters program, was impressed with the transitional homes and with Hope Village in general. He agreed with Aycock that the system is flawed and that places like Hope Village are a good alternative for children who have been failed by the system.
"There are some good foster homes," he said. "You want to keep the good ones and keep the good children's group homes."
Bryant said that he thinks Hope Village is a good model for other communities in Mississippi, but that he is not sure it would work everywhere.
"What you have that we might not have in trying to emulate this is leadership," he said.
Bryant said the purpose of his visit to Hope Village was to learn how the foster care system can be improved upon. "I'm looking for best practices and I'm looking for innovations," he said.
Hope Village, he said, is both. He was particularly interested in the transitional homes. If they work, he said, "We'd like to expand it throughout the state of Mississippi." He said he doesn't feel enough is currently being done for older adolescent children who are or have been in state custody.
"The real challenge," he said, "is to find communities and community leaders that will adopt these children's homes."
Bryant, who is currently planning his 2009 legislative session agenda, said he will do what he can to make the law better serve the children of Mississippi.
"Whatever we need to amend or adopt to make the working relationship between the government and Hope Village and other children's services, we will," he said. "If we need to change some laws, that's what we'll do."
Bryant added that, while government help for places like Hope Village is one thing, government-run group homes is another. "Government can't do what Hope Village is doing," he said.
