Carol: Today we’re talking with Maureen Kornowa, of Home of Hope at Gwinnett Children’s Shelter. Maureen, for those who are unfamiliar with what you do, why don’t you tell us a little bit about the program.
Maureen: Sure. Home of Hope at Gwinnett Children’s Shelter is a transitional living facility for homeless children from birth to 17. We take our moms from being in a homeless situation to feeling, well, hopeful and ultimately into a home of their own.
Carol: Before we get into the details of the program, why don’t you tell us what the biggest misconception is about homelessness?
Maureen: Right, I love to talk about this because I use the term suburban poverty and that makes a lot of people think, wait a minute, suburban poverty, what is that?
Because when you say the word homeless, you automatically conjure up, it’s human nature, that you conjure up the image of a homeless, disheveled guy under the bridge in the inner city. When I can tell you it’s a beautiful young lady waiting at your table at Chili’s at lunchtime and going back to sleep in her car with her young kids in an unofficial safe lot here in Gwinnett County.
We had a young lady come into the program years ago and, she was a waitress, and she was sleeping in a Walmart parking lot and she had three kids. The older boy was nine, so he was in third grade and then she had a 2-year-old and a baby. And if you can imagine sleeping in your car with three young kids.
So, they were just lovely. She got into the program, and he was really shy. The 9-year-old kind of helped mom with the littles, right? But she was telling me when she came in, and he went to our schools out here in Gwinnett County, and he was getting picked on at the lunch table that our kids would go to, right?
Because he’d be wearing the same shirt three days in a row that week because everything they own was in trash bags in the trunk of the car and she could only go to the laundromat on a Saturday. So here’s this little boy getting picked on, and she would tell him, don’t tell anyone that we’re homeless because the police will take you away from them.
And she didn’t do it to be ugly. She did it so he understood he didn’t want to lose her, and she didn’t want to lose him. So here’s this 9-year-old in third grade with the weight of the world on his shoulders, right? So, They get into our program. He still hides behind mom peeking out, but within days, you would see he was in a safe environment He was free to be a kid.
No adult conversations on the shoulders of children. And you know, in a week or two, he’s showing you what he made at school or what grade he got on something. Just could be free to be children, right? That’s the kind of thing that makes you think that we never know, and it’s a good opportunity too, and a loving and Christ-like way too, to sit with your kids and teach them about why bullying or why picking on someone is so important because you never know what’s going on.
That little boy couldn’t have a friend because he couldn’t have a sleepover at someone’s house or couldn’t have anyone sleep at his house because they were in the car so he couldn’t tell anyone. He just had to keep his mouth shut. So, because he was terrified of losing his mom, she was terrified of losing them. So, suburban poverty.
So, Home of Hope, um, was developed 10 years ago now. And it was to address the issue of suburban poverty and how do we move families out of homelessness to independent living.
Carol: Let’s get into the specifics of your program. How is it different from other homeless shelters? What is the philosophy behind its mission?
Maureen: Home of Hope at Gwinnett Children’s Shelter is a faith-based organization, which is really nice. We’re very different from other shelters in that our families live with us for up to a year and a half and each case is customized to that young lady’s needs, right? There’s no one recipe for homelessness, a cure for homelessness.
What’s good for Sally over here may not be good for Susie over here. Each case is customized to that young family’s need. So, that’s another way that we’re very different from others. Uh, we don’t have mats on the floors. We have a beautiful, 40-acre campus. Each family has their own room. Each room has its own bathroom. Common living spaces, sports fields, walking trails. So, it’s really a place of respite. Mom to take a breath. Kids are free to be kids. And then mom gets on her high-accountability program to get her to independent living.
Carol: Okay. And let’s talk a little bit about that. Um, the program that they’re on. So they have rules that they have to follow. They’re not, you’re not just taking people in to give them a place to sleep, correct?
Maureen: So, for someone to get into our program, we start with a telephone assessment. And the reason that we do that is we don’t have government funding to operate Home of Hope at Gwinnett Children’s Shelter. We can take 20 families at a time; that would be our max.
And so we look for that spark of desire in an interview. From a young lady who’s really willing to change her outcomes and do what we’re going to offer, the program that we’re going to offer. So, we start with a telephone assessment to an in-person interview. Once that interview happens, we let them know within 24 hours if they got a spot in our program.
And so, going to the rules, each family that comes in, mom reads the rules onboarded, she understands we have a 9 o’clock curfew at night. That’s it. Some of our young moms may not like that, but guess what…if you have three kids under five, you don’t need to be anywhere after nine o’clock at night. It’s dinner, bath, hair wash, read a book, play outside, whatever it is.
And then mom has life-skills training every Wednesday night, which we provide all the wraparound services on campus. And they are required to meet with their case manager each week. So each week, Kind of set the path for the next week to the next meeting. Okay.
Carol: So it’s not really a handout. It really is a hand-up.
Maureen: Oh, it’s a hand-up. Not a handout.
Carol: Okay. So, You mentioned that they have life-skills training classes also. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Maureen: Sure. We partner with community leaders who come in on Wednesday evenings. It could be banking, consumer credit counseling, second chance, checking accounts, parenting, time management, resume writing, career building.
Things that mom needs. Maybe the life skills that she wasn’t taught that would help her. It’s all part of the plan for that young lady to push her to independent living. Maybe she’s never had a budget before. We require a month of employment within 30 days. Each mom has to save between 30 and 50 percent of each paycheck.
We don’t take a penny. That’s their money. But they are required to save it week to week. And that money represents the rent they’re going to pay when they move out someday. And we all know that in this real estate market here, as well, that true number of your monthly household budget has jumped up to probably 50 to 75 percent would be a truer number.
However, if you’re making 15, 17 an hour and you have two kids, it’s not realistic that you’re going to save 50 percent of your paycheck when you’re mainstream living, so.
Carol: Okay, that sounds like they really have to earn their keep to stay there.
Maureen: Oh, they have to follow the rules they agreed to when they came in. That’s really not difficult, and there’s a solution. Their way wasn’t working, and we have a solution for you. Just let us surround you with the love and support that you weren’t getting, and we promise we’ll get you there. But you have to do your part.
Carol: So, tell me about your success rate. What percentage of your guests actually go on to graduate from the program?
Maureen: So, right now we’re sitting around 78-percent success rate, which those of you in the non-profit space know that is a really good number. During COVID we jumped up to about 82 percent. But we had some federal CARES Act dollars during that time that allowed us to create a fast-track program to take people through quicker.
During COVID, a lot of bad things happened to good people. We could get people in and out quickly. So the success rate jumped up. All that money is gone. We don’t have government funding to operate. So, now we’re back to where we were. And so at 78%, we’re really proud of that.
Carol: Okay, so you don’t get any government funding?
Maureen: No.
Carol: How are the programs, how is the program funded?
Maureen: Yeah. Yeah. If this was vodka, we’d be having a conversation. So, um, we do, we have a pie chart. If you looked at our financial pie chart, we’re at almost 31 percent in events. So, we do three large events a year that help.
Our grants and foundations are around 20-something percent, and individual donors as well. So cultivating donors and leaders. We have a lot of support from our religious community and our corporate community. Um, so that’s really how it’s done. Grants and foundations, individual donors, and events.
Carol: Well, other than attending events, how can people get involved with the Home of Hope?
Maureen: The Home of Hope relies heavily on volunteers. So, if someone wanted to volunteer, you would go to our website at homeofhopegcs.org. There’s a drop-down window; fill out a volunteer application. Um, those come to me.
Samantha will then reach out, and we will do free background checks. And once you’re cleared to volunteer on campus, there’s lots to do from kids club activities, arts and crafts. Our trails are, you know, 40 acres. There are three large buildings. There’s always something to paint or do or fix. Meals to cook.
Carol: If there’s one final thought that you want to leave the audience with, what would that be?
Maureen: Open your eyes to suburban poverty. Our beautiful young kids and young ladies are hiding in plain sight right here in our community, and we get so busy in our own lives, in our own bubbles, that we don’t think to see what’s going on right around our own community.
And as business people and Christians we can come together. It takes a village to raise a family, and we have a multi-generational approach to ending the cycle of homelessness for each young family. But it takes all of us to do it.
Carol: Maureen, thank you so much for coming here today and sharing with us what the Home of Hope’s mission is.
And if you would like to donate to the Home of Hope or volunteer, please visit their website.
Maureen: And if I may jump in, I want to give a big heartfelt thank you to MIS Solutions. They’ve been a big supporter of Home of Hope since I’ve been on board for 10 years. And I can tell you with their support, I can see how it’s working firsthand here in our community.
So a heartfelt thank you. Thank you.
Visit the Home of Hope’s website to learn how you can make a difference at https://homeofhopegcs.org/give-hope/
Share:
