Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 22, 1990 TAG: 9005220222
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: CHRISTINA SAMUELS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Construction on the home, which is to house 12 girls ages 6 to 17, is expected to begin in mid-September and be ready for operation in mid-1991. All the funding for the $500,000 project is expected to come from private donations, said Robert McCullough, the organization's executive director. A fund-raising committee is being assembled. The plantation does not accept any government funding.
Floor plans have been submitted to the Bedford County Planning Department, but no building permits have been obtained. The home is to be located on Virginia 746 across from Holy Land USA.
The majority of the children in the program come from broken homes, McCullough said.
"We try to intervene when the children are in a high-risk situation." The program does not accept children with drug or alcohol problems or with a criminal history, nor does it accept court appointments, said Dr. Dick Greene, a psychologist who works with the children at the Campbell County home in Brookneal.
"Our program is not equipped to handle children with those problems," Greene said. "Instead, we refer them to other programs. We can offer them alternatives."
Once an application is submitted, usually by the parents, children and parents are interviewed. "We trace the child's development back, sometimes even through pregnancy," Greene said. An admissions committee then meets to decide if the home's program can meet the child's needs.
The average stay of a child in the program is 18 to 24 months. "The ultimate goal is to take the child and work with the child to get him back into his natural home," Greene said.
While living at the group home, children attend public school and receive counseling.
"We do group counseling in the cottage setting, which is all 12 boys," Greene said. "We also work individually with the child. The whole concept is to meet the need of the child at the point of need."
Patrick Henry Boys Plantation has three residential programs in operation: the home in Brookneal houses 36 boys; a home in Cluster Springs, in Halifax County, houses 12 boys; and a home in Rustburg, in Campbell County, houses 12 girls.
The home in Bedford will be built much like a normal home, said McCullough. "The purpose is to function as much like a family as possible."
A husband-and-wife team will live in the house with the children and run the home. A couple has not been chosen yet for the proposed Bedford home.
Couples are chosen on the basis of "maturity, life experience, education and high moral character," McCullough said. "You have to be able to give up a lot and be able to give a lot to the children," he added. The program also looks for couples with a strong religious faith. "We consider ourselves a Christian ministry."
Judy Harris, a house mother at Brookneal, said, "We consider ourselves called by God. . . . People who come looking for a job are less satisfied than people looking for service." Harris and her husband both worked full time before coming to the program.
The Patrick Henry Boys Plantation was an outgrowth of the Patrick Henry Memorial Organization, which owned 1,000 acres on which Patrick Henry lived and is buried. "They [the organization] wanted to form a living memorial to Patrick Henry," McCullough said. The organization set aside 840 acres for the first boys home, and the first boy arrived Feb. 1, 1961.
About 200 applications a year arrive at the headquarters in Brookneal from as far away as California and Washington, Greene said. The program accepts less than 20 percent of the boys and less than 10 percent of the girls.
However, there are no plans to build any new facilities. "We don't want to bite off more than we can chew," McCullough said. "We build one, make sure it's secure, and then if we have enough funds we build another one."
by CNB