Checking In on Hope Meadows 2010: Influence Far beyond Its Boundaries

Child Advocacy 360

Harvey Chipkin

February 24, 2010

In child advocacy communication, there is no substitute for staying in touch with stories of what's working to build better lives for disadvantaged children and youth in America.

Note from Hershel Sarbin, publisher and founder of Child Advocacy 360:

In child advocacy communication there is no substitute for staying in touch with stories of Who’s Doing What That Works to build better lives for disadvantaged, under-served children and youth in America.

We at Child Advocacy 360 are committed to monitoring the progress of programs and people who are making a difference in their communities and beyond, and bringing you inspiring stories about innovations and ways of communicating results that can ensure even greater success.

In 2009, as part of Child Advocacy 360’s national research on communication in child-youth issues, we held a focus group of 20 adults. We told them the story of Hope Meadows (see below) and how it is achieving permanency for children in foster care and lasting benefits for young and old alike.

Almost immediately, the focus group agreed that building better lives for kids was a path to building stronger communities. It suddenly became easier to talk about helping other people’s children – not just taking care of your own – in the context of building that stronger community, where those who were helped also “gave back” as they grew into responsible citizenship.

As you read the following 2010 update from our co-editor Harvey Chipkin on the continuing growth and evolution of Hope Meadows, we hope you’ll also take the time to link to our earlier Hope Meadows stories cited below.

- Hershel Sarbin

Generations of Hope Founder Brenda Krause Eheart Collects Two Prestigious Awards – Plus: a Sparkling Update on Hope Meadows Expansion

by Harvey Chipkin

We have long recognized and written about the tremendous accomplishments of Brenda Eheart, founder and CEO of Generations of Hope, which created Hope Meadows, the intergenerational community in Rantoul, Illinois, where families adopt neglected and abused children from the foster care system. These families live amidst neighboring "grandparents" who create a supportive environment. (Read CFK's article.)

We spoke to her again recently – shortly after she had received an Inspire Award from AARP given to "outstanding individuals who are using their energy, creativity and passion to make the world a better place" (and which she shared with the likes of Clint Eastwood and Stott Hamilton) and a Purpose Prize fellowship from Civic Ventures.

Far from resting on those lofty laurels, Eheart is busier than ever seeking to expand—both geographically and conceptually—her idea of supportive communities. We caught up with Eheart just a little while after she received the latest accolades. Here are highlights of our discussion:

On the awards:
“The best thing is the attention it puts on us. Since we appeared in the December issue of the AARP magazine (which claims “the world’s largest magazine circulation”), we have gotten pretty much an inquiry a day either from people who want to start a Generations of Hope community or want to move to one,” Eheart told me. AARP took notice of Generations of Hope “because of the senior piece, where we have volunteer grandparents.”

In fact, Eheart has a meeting scheduled this March with Bill Novelli, former head of AARP, to talk about end-of-life care—an issue that is arising in Hope Meadows now that the original seniors are aging. “We are fascinated with aging in a community from an active senior into an older person with deteriorating health but wants to remain the community. The young people you helped can now turn around and help you,” she says.

On Expanding Hope Meadows:
Ground is scheduled to be broken in March on Bridge Meadows in Portland, Oregon, the second community in the country with which Generations of Hope is intimately involved. Other communities are in development.

The ongoing struggle, says Eheart, is financing new construction projects to the tune of $12 million to $15 million each. While “the interest is clearly there, the question is financing them without compromising core principles. We have an emerging option of buying existing housing because of the economic situation. We have just met a gentleman named Mile Pulling, who heads up Health Care Management, which works with nonprofits on this very kind of thing.” Health Care Management was formed in 1979 to assist non-profit, religious and charitable sponsors of senior health and residential services in strategic planning, feasibility studies market analyst, financial planning and more.

Generations of Hope is also working with Enterprise Community Foundation, which has a long history of building or restoring affordable housing across the country.

On the Big Picture:

"There is tremendous interest in intergenerational communities, in having older adults play a significant role in solving social problems related to vulnerable people. We recently had a group come to us who wanted to design a community for developmentally challenged adults. There are many other groups that might have need for these kinds of communities – whether it is young mothers with drug addictions or kids coming out of foster care with developmental delays.”

We’re very grateful that the concept has grown enough now that anybody can understand what we’re doing,” Eheart says.

More on Hope Meadows: