1/17/08

New Horizons gives special moms a second chance
By Jerriod Grizzle

JERRIOD GRIZZLE/Manning Times

David Kiehn, Assistant Director for the New Horizons Family Institute chats with another resident of New Horizons about her day and her shopping trip. As residents of the Institute, girls are taught to make wise decisions for their children and themselves.

“I’ve been in foster care since I was four-years-old,” said Ashley, one of the residents at the New Horizons Family Institute (NHFI), part of the Youth Learning Institute of Clemson University at Camp Bob Cooper.

“I was adopted at 11, but came back to foster care and I’ve been at Camp Bob Cooper for one year and a month,” she said.

For many of the residents of the NHFI this is their same story. Their time at the camp could be their saving grace.

“We are an alternative to foster care. We try to teach our residents to be very successful and teach them life skills,” said Assistant Director of the New Life Family Institute, David Kiehn, describing the program.

Residents are taught to live on a budget, shop wisely and make decisions that are in their best interests along with the best interests of their child.

“We have one-on-one meetings with the girls and sit down with them and answer questions like ‘am I making good decisions,’ ‘what do you want to do’ and ‘how do you want to do it,’” said Kiehn.

The girls, who all have children and come from the Department of Social Services, go through a rigorous process to enter the program.

“We may get ten calls and only have two interviews,” said Kiehn.

The residents live together in houses within the institute until they are of age to move out on their own. They then move to a “transition house” that helps them prepare for the world outside of the camp.

The children of the girls also live on site.

“All the kids are connected together along with all of us and there is a real bond.

“It is really a big family,” said Ashley. “We are just like sisters. We also help one another out a lot. It is a really good place.”

Ashley has a four-year-old boy that she describes as the light of her life.

“I love seeing his lit up face. He is in Pre-K, and he loves to play,” she said.

The girls, who range in age from 14-21, go to school, go to church and interact with society. They also do community service for different organizations around the community.

“We try to teach them how to be part of their community. We take part in the community with programs such as adopt-a-highway and volunteering at nursing homes,” Kiehn said.

Ashley’s case, she wants to be a nurse.

“Since I’ve been here I graduated high school, and started college. I want to be a nurse and work with kids because I love kids,” she said.

She plans to leave the program in a year and spend time putting herself through college and use the skills she has learned at the camp.

“I plan to move and be with my family, both foster and real parents,” she said.

Kiehn said that the girls get not only life skills like cooking, cleaning and decision making but go a bit farther.

“We teach them how to dress and how to act for a job interview so that when they leave here they can succeed both personally and professionally,” he said.

Ashley’s day is pretty typical of any young mother’s.

“I get up 6:30 a.m. and get my son ready for school to leave at 7:15. I get dressed myself to go to school and I’m out the door by 8 a.m. I go to school from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and am home from 1:30 to 3:30 when my son comes home from school. We study and play together from about the time he gets home until his bedtime at 7:30. I go back and study until I go to bed which is about 11 p.m.”

She has a lot of privileges because she has been in the program a little over a year but she has had to move up to where she is now.

“We have different levels of privileges. You move up as you go along,” said Kiehn. “These are really good girls who really want to be moms and here at the institute we offer them that chance.”