
DATE: Friday, November 21, 1997             TAG: 9711210667

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY LANE DeGREGORY, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: MANTEO                            LENGTH:  105 lines

MANTEO TO OPEN GROUP FOSTER HOME COMMUNITY DONATIONS FUNDED HOUSE

Crisp sheets cover eight brand new beds. Sparkling dishes are stacked in the dining room hutch. The one-acre lawn has been landscaped; the mocha carpet has been cut; even the just-donated computer is online.

Dare County's first group foster home is ready to open its pinecone wreath-adorned doors.

``It's pretty humbling to be in this lovely house and think that your community did all this through donations,'' said Sandy Brookshire, who supervises youth programs for Dare County's Social Services Department. ``Most of the kids that will live here come from really neglectful situations. They aren't used to this kind of lifestyle.

``Here, they'll get a chance to escape from emergency situations, spend some time with two teaching parents and live in a family environment until we can either reunite them with their real families or find them long-term foster care or adoption.''

Three years ago, Nan Willis' son told her about a Manteo High School classmate whose parents had kicked her out of her home. The 17-year-old was living under the porch of an abandoned house. She had nowhere else to go.

The Wright Place for Youth, which Willis helped spearhead, will provide temporary lodging for children 8 through 18 who have been taken away from their guardians - and are awaiting permanent placement.

At 2 p.m. Saturday, the 4,200-square-foot home will host an open house so that the public can see what their contributions have built.

Foster children are scheduled to start sleeping in the $327,000, two-story house in downtown Manteo on Dec. 8. Up to five youths at a time will stay in the home for up to 90 days each. Two permanent staff, called ``teaching parents,'' will supervise the children, teach them skills such as cooking and doing laundry, and help them adjust to temporary living situations while Social Services counselors work out more permanent plans.

On the Outer Banks, courts take about 35 children away from their parents each year and place them in the custody of Social Services. Dare County has 17 foster families - half the number needed. The new home will help house the rest of those children and allow them to remain in their schools, with their friends, in their communities.

``We'd get these kids and have no place to put them. We'd drive them across the state, 200 miles or more, to Kinston, Thomasville and Morganton to group facilities there,'' Brookshire said Thursday from an overstuffed emerald sofa in the foster home's lush living room. ``The children were being punished and removed from all their familiar surroundings.

``That made reunification with parents even more difficult - and certainly made already tough situations even harder on the kids.''

Many of the children who will stay at the youth home come from abusive situations where their parents neglected them or over-indulged in drugs and alcohol. The children aren't usually violent or troublesome. They just need more stable home lives, Brookshire said.

While they're at the foster facility, social workers will continue meeting with the children at least once a week.

The teaching parents, a couple in their early thirties, will be responsible for keeping the children in school, taking them to the doctor, helping with their homework - everything real parents do.

``Adolescents, typically, are hard to find foster homes for,'' Brookshire said. ``Group homes are established so children who are older can experience a real family-type life.''

Social Services funds will pay the estimated $400 to $500 per month to house each child. Officials say the home's annual operating expenses will be about $200,000. That money will come from Alcoholic Beverage Control board taxes - profits the county formerly gave the tourist bureau.

``We contracted the Methodist Home to run this house. They'll oversee all the administration and have provided the teaching parents,'' Willis said. ``They'll be able to provide the help these children need so they won't be punished for what their parents did - or didn't do.''

From glass-top foyer tables to framed prints adorning each wall to fluffy, color-coordinated towels in all six bathrooms, the furnishings - and much of the construction supplies - for the foster home were donated by more than 140 local businesses and community groups. Builder Bob DeGabrielle gave much of the material and the plans for the house. And all but $1,700 of the initial expenses have been paid.

The decor is upscale. The home's exterior and interior are as elegant as the area's $5,000-per-week oceanfront rental houses. Accessories include such items a Nintendo video games and an encyclopedia set. ``We really want these children to see what other people have - what they could have,'' said Loretta Michael, an administrator for the home's non-profit board. ``We want it to be a nice place for them to be during such a traumatic time in their lives. We're providing a family-style situation with a lot of structure.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

DREW C. WILSON/The Virginian-Pilot

Sandy Brookshire says The Wright Place for Youth will give children

somewhere to go in emergencies.

Graphic

HOW TO SEE IT

The Wright Place for Youth, Dare County's first group foster

home, will host an open house at 2 p.m. Saturday. The house is on

514 Ananias Dare Street Ext. near Manteo Baptist Church. Call

473-5858, Ext. 248 for more information.

HOW TO HELP

Although most of the house and furnishings have been donated, The

Wright Place for Youth still needs about $1,700 to pay final