Lynchburg Business

The Bedford County Group Homes: A Place for Life Change

Issue: June 2010 by Chris McCune in Non-Profit

It’s no secret: Change happens over a lifetime. Problems in children typically do not just crop up in six months to a year and change does not happen that fast either. That is why having an outlet such as The Bedford County Group Homes (BCGH) is so important to our culture and our communities.

Since 1997, Bedford County has been home to a place that many troubled children have called their home, fittingly located on Turning Point Road. As the name of the street implies, BCGH is a place where children and young adults’ lives are often turned around. What started as a nonprofit for troubled foster kids that provided a controlled environment for interventions and care has turned into a viable and much-needed outlet in the Region 2000 community. Today, they have four homes—two for boys and two for girls, ages 10 through 18—a new school and a gymnasium. They currently average about 21 children in the group homes, 20 in school and six in the independent living program.

Paul Tesi was one of the partners involved in starting BCGH and one year after its inception, he became the Director—a role he has maintained ever since. Having previously worked at other group homes, Tesi says he knew what he was getting into, but also says that he has a true heart for his work.

“Our commitment to the kids is a lifetime commitment,” he said.

BCGH accepts children from anywhere in the State but their main outreach is within Region 2000. The children accepted into the program are referred by Social Services or the school systems in Central Virginia. All the kids in the group home either have to be in foster care or come from failed adoptions. The failed adoption children make up 30 percent of their numbers. These children are a result of adoptions in which the child did not fit well into a family or their behavioral and emotional problems turned out to be more than their adopted family could handle.

The average stay at BCGH is between six months to a year, with some kids staying longer and some shorter. The idea is to mitigate behaviors and lessen conflicts the kids have in order to make them more successful in their communities and families and, if possible, reunite them with their families. Half of the children who go through the BCGH go back to the same family they came from and the other half are placed in new foster homes. When this happens, BCGH is there to help with the transition.

With a need to not only house these children but to also educate and foster their growth, BCGH offers different programs to attain this goal. Their New Hope Academy is one program offered, and is a setting where students who are not doing well in their current educational setting are placed. Here, the instructors teach individual GED preparatory classes and work with students in special education classes.

Another program offered is the Independent Living program, call “Segue.” This program is for young adults, ages 18 to 21, who have an I.Q. of 70 or above. If a child is already at the home when they are 17, the usual progression once they turn 18 is to enter them into the Segue. Through this program, BCGH helps these now-adults get jobs and apartments, get into college and aims to guide them through their transition into adulthood. Currently in the program, eight of the young adults are in college; five of which are at a 4-year college.

Supervised visitation is another outlet they provide to residents and the local Department of Social Services. When a local judge removes children from their biological home, the judge will want visitation to happen very quickly in a supervised manner. BCGH provides the space and the supervision required and, in turn, is able to give reports to the courts.

With all that they do as a nonprofit, the BCGH do depend on state funding as well as fundraising and community support. While state funding provides for operational expenses, it does not provide for the extra things the Homes do to make the children’s experiences hopeful and meaningful. To make up for the rest of the expenses, BCGH holds an annual fall banquet where 70 percent of their funds are raised. This fundraising allows them to provide the kids with birthday and Christmas presents, driving lessons and recreational trips. BCGH also encourages all of the kids to take music or art lessons, or participate in sport activities. In order to pay for these “extras,” they rely on donations made through a gift fund. While their costs are often covered through these efforts, the three greatest needs the BCGH has is for funds to provide scholarships, the cost of college admittance and materials needed for the classes offered.

Currently, they are raising money for The Haven Project to revitalize the backyards of the four group homes. They need to reseed the grass as well as get grills, storage buildings and flowers and trees put in to make the backyards a haven for the kids.

Other than fundraising support from the community, the BCGH also use volunteers to help the kids study for their GEDs, SOLs, SATs and driving lessons. Volunteers help in the form of acting as tutors, coaches and mentors to provide both educational and emotional support. This interaction also begins to develop relationships between the kids and volunteers that give them needed support after they become adults and are on their own.

As for Tesi, he says that it’s the long-term commitment he and other workers at BCGH have with the kids there that brings him joy, as kids that use to be at the homes now come back every week to seek medical, relationship or legal counsel. Some just want advice or someone to listen to them. Other times, it’s much more personal.

“Sometimes the kids come to thank us or to tell us about their wedding or how college is going. That is a piece of it that I enjoy so much,” Tesi said.

At BCGH, employees like Tesi feel what they are doing is more than just a job; it is a responsibility to be there for the kids. Many people don’t get the amazing opportunity to affect the outcome of someone else’s life, Tesi explains, and therefore he believes that if he and his staff do not personally invest in their job, they will not impact the children they work with in a meaningful way.

“It is very personal for me, to be honest,” he said. “[For me], it is a need to produce change in these kids lives, because if we don’t then the process and the cycle continues and trickles down to other generations of a family. We are trying to limit the effects of those things over time.”

While some may look in from the outside and see the kids as being broken, Tesi is quick to dispute that. In fact, he says that at BCGH, they feel that their kids’ lives are meaningful and purposeful.

“So many of our kids are insightful, intuitive and strong,” Paul stated. “Their experiences are unique and they are not for nothing.”

We all have things in our lives that happen to make us who we are and, just like us, these kids deserve a chance to live their best life possible. The Bedford County Group Homes offer just such a change by creating a place where possibilities seem to bloom and hope has a new meaning.