Random Thanks Giving Thoughts

My friend Dar called yesterday. It is always a treat to catch up on her family and her work. It was exciting to hear her talk about her ‘calling’ and conviction to have a positive impact on the lives of teens that live with Asperger syndrome. We are each incredibly blessed to have paths and direction for our life’s work. I am blessed by our friendship.

Another friend; recently retired from a fruitful career as an educator of young children, shared that she has been searching her heart for meaningful ways to invest her time in retirement. She is excited about the plan for Chloe’s Place and believes that this ministry just might be a good fit for her skills and heart. I’m sure she is right and our ministry is sure to be enriched.

I have been a little “sensitive” about my age since turning 60. Over the last few months I have thought a lot about aging and the sense of urgency that brings to accomplishing goals. I have met several women that are my age (or older) that are excited about their future and the changes in their lives that allows them time to pursue their dreams. I have decided; sixty is good… the future is bright. I am thrilled to be on such a fine journey.

John and I have been married nearly 40 years! Whatever I have been able to dream or accomplish in my life, he has been there, often in the background, holding down the fort. I’m not sure where the years have flown, but I know I am one of the fortunate ones, to have him by my side…still holding down the fort and supporting my passions. Come, grow old along with me… the best is yet to be .... God Bless our love...

My daughters are remarkable women; I simply could not be prouder of them. When they were small I adored being their mom. I think I was kind of hard on them, I expected a lot. There adolescent years were the most challenging, perhaps because I wanted so badly to protect them from painful realities of life. They weathered it well, in spite of my hovering. Sending them off to college was an ‘act of obedience’. I wanted them close by, yet the thought that recurred in my mind was, “What if God’s plan for them is to serve Him in Africa, and I won’t let them out of my sight! I simply must trust… and let go. When they were small I prayed regularly that God would hand-pick fine husbands for them. He did! How could one be so blessed?

Anna-Gretchen-Philip-Ethan-Aiden-Eli-Zachary-Josie….ahhhh- grandchildren, the sweetest gift to a woman’s heart!

My four legged buddy. Wet nose... muddy paws... laughing eyes.... Doris Elizabeth

I am thankful for my life and all of the family and friends that grace my life.
I am thankful for my home and community where I am safe and comfortable.
I am thankful for the freedom to follow my dreams and act on my faith calling.
I am thankful for health, mobility, and keen senses.
I am thankful for the vision for Chloe’s Place and progress toward it.
I am thankful to experience the grace and love of Jesus Christ in my life.

Work Group Insight

Last Saturday the Foundation Building Team for Chloe’s Place had a full day work session. I was able to share an overview of my visit to Hope House of Colorado and we began to absorb the information contained in the documents shared by Hope House. It was an exciting time for us to focus on ‘next steps’.

One purpose of this blog is to help those that are interested, learn what is involved in establishing a new ministry. You will have an inside look at the process and hopefully be drawn to the ministry as you follow our progress.

The main objective of our meeting on Saturday was to establish priorities and develop a time line for progress. There are so many tasks to be done it can seem overwhelming without a clear plan in place. Some priorities are dictated by law … for example, we can’t apply for a license until we have ‘the house’. Here are the issues we have committed to address in December and the first few months of the new year.

Leadership Structure

Board of directors

• Desired skill sets
• Potential candidates
• Invite applications
• Interview
• Select Board Members
• Develop orientation packet
• Orientation

The House

• Acquire house
• Arrange for an architect
• Building plans
  
• Open bidding for renovation
• Reconfigure to meet program needs
• Meet licensing requirements….address codes
• Apply for licensure
• Furnish house and office

Marketing

• Design communication packet
• Define constituents
• Establish marketing plan

Fund Raising

• Develop strategies
• Implement/ distribute
• Revenue generation plan…events
• Fine tune Start Up Budget

Operations

• Staffing… Paid, Volunteer, Contracted, Outsourced
• Design organizational chart
• Hire staff...
  
• Staff Policies
• Recruit
• Training
• Address legal issues
• Obtain necessary insurance
• Recruit Residents

This list does not give you the details of the timing or order of priority. I just thought you might be interested in what we are and will be working on in the near future.

The Dilemma

Marriage is no longer the option chosen by most teens with an unplanned pregnancy. In the early 1960’s almost 70% of pregnant Caucasians ages 15-19 married compared to 19% in the early 1990’s. For African American girls the rate fell from 36% to less than 7%.

Teen parenting statistics show that teen parenting is still a rising occurrence in today’s society despite widely available sex education and numerous birth control methods. Federal health experts say they don't know why the teen pregnancy numbers went up from 2005 to 2006, and that not enough data have been collected to say whether it's a trend. Along the same lines, 1/3 of girls in the United States got pregnant before age 20, and more than 435,000 babies were born to teens between 15 and 19 years in 2006, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2005, the number of births for girls aged 15 to 17 was about 133,000, or 21 for every 1,000 girls. That number rose to nearly 139,000, or 22 for every 1,000 girls, in 2006.

Teen parenting statistics indicate that teenage parents and their child are both at a disadvantage in terms of health, education, and finances.

Early parenthood and its effect on the education, employment, and economic dependence of the upcoming generation of adult citizens in the US is a national concern. In terms of education, teen parenting statistics show that while it has become socially accepted for teenage mothers to stay in school, unfortunately, an alarming 80 percent of them either choose or feel the need to drop out and only 50% of teenage parents who had their first child during the early teenage years will finish high school before they reach thirty. The outlook for these teen parents who have educational deficiencies, episodic work histories and other barriers to employment is not good. This special population of young adults need increased help in all areas of career preparation—academic and vocational education, employability and life skills development—if they are to overcome the difficulties that hinder their successful transition to adulthood.

The demographic characteristics of teen parents reveal a majority who are in the 18-21 year range, live in poverty, have dropped out of school, and are unemployed and unmarried. Although some teens resume their education after they become parents, their potential for high school graduation is often dependent on their support network and life course adaptation.

Teen moms face higher health risks than mothers at an older age. Majority of the risks result from the fact that most teen moms lack prenatal care and not because of immature physical development. According to teenage parenting statistics, about forty percent of teen moms did not receive quality or adequate care during pregnancy, resulting in their children born with poor health. The result of this situation is that the child or children of these teenage parents generally exhibit lower cognitive development compared to their peers. These children have the tendency to become underachievers academically and are more likely to become school drop outs, too. Teen parenting statistics also point out that these kids start to engage in sex earlier than most of their peers and have a higher tendency to repeat their parent’s past and become teenage parents also.

Economically, teen moms who are not able to achieve a high school diploma or finish a GED program generally will experience more difficulty in finding a secure and well-paying job. This is evident in teen parenting statistics showing women who had children after the age of 20 earn twice as much as women who were teen moms. In addition, ten percent of teen moms are not receiving child support from the child’s father and forty percent rely on various government assistance programs such as food stamps in order to get by.

A House for Chloe's Place

One huge consideration for the ministry of Chloe’s Place is where the ‘house’ will be located. This issue is bigger than me or the Foundation Building Team or all of us combined. It is an issue that is in the hands of God. I believe that God has a design for Chloe’s Place and that the ‘house’ is part of that design. That does not mean that we sit by and wait for the door bell to ring and Ed McMahon to appear with a check in the exact amount to purchase and furnish the ‘perfect house. (Ed, if you are reading this and have such a check… bring it on, we can adapt our plan to accommodate the gift! ) I find myself on the ‘look out’ all the time, wondering when I see a rambling style house, if it could be ‘the one’.

Here are a few of the requirements for our house:

• 12 bedroom… each mom will have a room as will her children; we plan to serve 6 teen moms at a time.

• Dining space to accommodate all residents and staff

• Bathrooms enough to meet the code requirement for our families and staff

• Kitchen large enough for 2 refrigerator, 2 dishwashers, a pantry, and spacious cabinets for storage

• Office space for Administrative, Service, and Volunteer Coordinators
  

• Laundry room …super sized

• Play area for children
  

• Gathering room for family activities

We are hopeful that we will have space nearby for community outreach; allowing us to offer parenting and life skill classes to teen moms that are not in need of the residential living program. At that site we will need:

• Classroom space

• Learning lab

• Office space

The Ohio Revised Code has quite a few specifications about the layout and design of a house for parenting teens. We will of course have to meet each requirement including Fire Marshall mandates, security, and health and safety considerations.

Hope House of Colorado received a donation of a house that had served a family of 9! The only stipulation was that they had to move it! With no land and time constraints they were ecstatic to receive a call from a church with a lot to donate!

I don’t know how our who God will use to raise up a house for Chloe’s Place, but I know for sure that God will provide as we continue to be available, faithful and bold in this faith journey.

Shortly after the vision for Chloe’s Place began to unfold I thought we should decide on a general geographic area to focus our attention. North East Franklin County in Ohio is convenient for those of us involved and CHLOE, Inc has some name recognition. I printed off a map and decided to estimate where the’ ideal’ location might be… I put a little mark on the map. Our Prayer Intercessors began praying for God’s best plan for our house and confirmation or redirection of our desired location. Since that time we have been invited by a wonderful church, in the exact area of our prayer focus, to establish Chloe’s Place. They have several buildings that with lots of work; to reconfigure and/or restore, just might work! There is a counseling service on site as well as classroom and office space.

Last week I toured a house that we have access to right now! It is in Columbus on a quiet court . The house is most likely too small to meet the Code requirements, but there were a couple of house on the court for sale… would it be possible to make that location work? It is worth considering!

We have a ton of work to do, including recruiting individuals, churches, and corporations that believe in this ministry enough to become financial supporters, before we can commit to a location. On the other hand, we can’t be licensed until we have a house! Join us as we discover God’s design for Chloe’s Place… it is a thrilling venture!

Colorado Trip

It was my great privilege to travel to Arvada, Colorado to visit Hope House of Colorado and meet with their leadership. Since determining to establish Chloe's Place as a self-sufficiency home for teen moms, this trip as been highly anticipated.

I arrived on Friday evening(10/31/08) and enjoyed some time to gather my thoughts, relax and prepare a full day on Saturday.

Lisa Steven, Founder/Director of Hope House of Colorado, greeted me first thing Saturday morning and we went directly to Hope House. Amie Walton, Program Director met us there and shared in the tour. There are currently 5 Hope House Residents who all welcomed me warmly. The moms and their kiddos were quite simply precious.

Lisa and Amie had prepared well for our full day meeting. We reviewed policies, curriculum, hand books, budgets etc. We toured the ‘house’ and the new GED lab. They shared resources for software, curriculum, fund raising training. They had so many wonderful ideas and proven processes to share. They gave me hard copies of business and program documents and forms.

One of the friends of Hope House joined our meetings for most of the day, she has taken on the task of developing the process for replicating Hope House. Her insightful questions and expertise was very helpful in sorting out important questions that will help not only Chloe’s Place, but other self-sufficiency homes that will be established under the tutelage of Hope House.

The president of the Hope House Board of Directors, kindly met with us for an hour or so sharing words of encouragement and wise counsel. He is obviously an astute business man with a heart for the ministry.

We enjoyed a wonderful lunch in Golden, CO. They knew this Midwesterner would enjoy a closer look at the mountains. It was awesome... and we were viewing the foothills!

On return to Hope House the ‘moms’ were just returning from a shopping trip. They had all purchased lovely evening wear for the upcoming Wassail Toast ( a major fund raising event for Hope House). They had new party outfits for each of their children as well. The girls were happy to share that they did not exceed their budgets and to pose for a picture.

Our evening ended with a dinner meeting at Olive Garden… one of my favorite restaurants.

The leadership of Hope House of Colorado has given us an awesome gift. Not only have they provided an excellent model, business and program resources, but a kinship of sorts. Our hearts beat in the same rhythm, longing to honor our Lord as we serve teen moms and their children. It will be a great joy and privilege to continue to work alongside Hope House staff, learning from them and sharing our insights as we follow their example.