It’s the middle of the night and a county social worker has just responded to an emergency situation. Five children, all siblings, are unable to return home due to serious safety concerns. These children are scared, worried, and strangers are promising to take care of them. More than anything, they just want to stay together.
Crossnore Communities for Children’s campus foster care program wants to be a place where these children can find hope and healing together on what may likely be the worst day of their lives.
The Call on Crossnore
Nearly every day Crossnore receives referrals from county social workers throughout North Carolina for emergency placements, sometimes these come at 2 am on a Saturday night. For more than 100 years, Crossnore has been a place where children can be welcomed, find safe adults who will care for them and be connected with support services that will prepare them for permanency, either back with their family of origin or another identified permanent caregiver.
Like many foster care agencies across the country, we license families to be volunteer foster parents. Most of us could repurpose a room, maybe two, of our homes for children. But how many of us could accommodate 5, 6, 7, or even more children in our homes when an emergency arises?
Crossnore’s two campuses, one in Avery County and one in Winston-Salem, house 17 large homes (we call them cottages) that can each accommodate up to 9 or 10 children comfortably. Without campus foster care services, most children who are a part of sibling sets run a significant risk of being separated from one another when they come into foster care.
Keeping Siblings Together
Sibling relationships should be treated as sacred for children in foster care. Research tells us that “placing siblings in the same foster home is associated with higher rates of placement stability, reunification, adoption and guardianship, and fostering positive sibling relations.” While there is policy that mandates trying to find placement for sibling sets together, this is often unable to be accommodated without large placement options like Crossnore’s campus foster care cottages.
It breaks my heart every time I see children separated from their brothers, sisters, twins. And, it fills me with joy every time we are able to reunify siblings with one another. This is a beautiful moment to watch and we do it very regularly here at Crossnore.
On Campus Foster Care Living
Crossnore’s campus foster care program is also a great placement option for youth who are closer to adulthood and seek to develop independent living skills. Two of our cottages on each campus have a special focus on youth independent living skill building. We even have 2 efficiency apartments on the Winston-Salem campus where young adults who have aged out of foster care up to 21 years old can live. In these apartments youth receive wrap around supports while practicing independence.
All children and youth in our campus foster care program benefit from an array of services. Parallelling Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the core of our campus foster care program is a safe, loving home. Because we know education has the power to change a child, and their family’s trajectory, we wrap trauma-informed schooling around every child and family in our program. On our Avery County campus, all children attend Williams Academy, the first fully trauma-informed school in the state. We are actively in the process of bringing a charter school to our Winston-Salem campus too. This school plans to open next year!
Services Provided On Campus
Each child and young adult in our campus foster care program also receives a comprehensive clinical assessment by one of our clinicians and the appropriate treatment services. Case managers work with all our clients to help coordinate the many support services they receive internally and externally.
Another major hallmark of Crossnore’s campus foster care program is the recreation and spiritual life opportunities we ensure all our clients receive. Cottages go to the beach each summer, plan fun and educational spring break activities, and do things any family likes to do over the summer like go to Carowinds, the pool, or for a day to hike and explore at Grandfather Mountain. Each of our 17 cottages is matched with a faith community they attend for worship and special activities. These faith communities provide spiritual development opportunities and also provide a sense of support and community for the children.
Setting Children and Young Adults Up for Success
Young adults growing up in our campus foster care program who graduate high school receive a car of their very own! We have a robust college scholarship program where we finance graduates’ education at community colleges, universities, and graduate schools throughout the country.
While Crossnore continues to adapt its child welfare continuum in response to change needs and legislation, our historically signature program, campus foster care, continues to play a pivotal role in Crossnore meeting the needs of children and families in North Carolina.
