A child is born into this world innocent. From there a family, a home, an environment, a situation, a circumstance shape a child. How will they realize their future potential, their promise?
This question is difficult to answer even in the best of circumstances. But imagine when a child is worried about simple survival, the hopelessness of facing unimaginable neglect; deprivation; malnutrition; and mental, emotional, and sexual abuse; and worse - inhumane treatment, even from their own family, the people they are supposed to be able to trust.
The Promise Campaign is about creating a path through these children's enormous challenges to a better place, to healing, self-worth, self-esteem, self-discovery, and uncovering the hidden talents that can lead to a happy life, success, and fulfilling their promise.
A child's promise.
Your gift to The Promise Campaign will enable The House of the Good Shepherd to offer traumatized children the path to realizing the promise each and every one individually holds.
Your contribution will be used to create both a Promise Wellness Program and a Promise Music Program.
So many children at The House have gone without adequate food and nutrition, shelter, and personal hygiene that they have no concept or understanding of why they need to care for themselves, let alone how.
The Promise Wellness Program will educate these children, helping them to form lifelong, healthy, and beneficial habits. They will take the steps to develop a healthy lifestyle by learning about nutrition, fitness, health care, and daily physical activity.
The Promise Music Program will offer children the chance to learn an instrument, participate in a musical theater production or a creative arts activity, both as a means to express themselves, but also as an opportunity to unlock a hidden talent that they can use as a source of catharsis, personal pleasure, or even a successful career long into the future.
The Promise Campaign will do this, but we, the children, need your generous support. Thank you for helping a child realize their potential, their promise!
The House of the Good Shepherd was founded in 1872 in Utica, New York to help meet the needs of local children and families. Since then, The House has evolved with the changing child welfare system. We have grown into a comprehensive human service agency providing treatment to more than 600 children and their families a year.
Our goal is to help children and families, who are struggling with serious emotional, social and behavioral problems, discover their ability to succeed. Children and families who arrive at The House often have exhausted every available option for remaining together.
Our main campus is on a 27-acre site at 1550 Champlin Avenue in Utica, New York. The House currently employs 400 full- and part-time staff and has more than 300 volunteers and student interns.
The House of the Good Shepherd is the only treatment setting of its kind in our community addressing the serious problems that children and families face. The House provides a comprehensive range of services on our Champlin Avenue campus. Located on our campus is a 30-bed residential treatment program which also has a complement of community group homes, an Intensive Treatment program for severely traumatized children, the Tilton School which provides special education classes to over 120 residential and day service students each day, and a Residential Treatment Facility offering the only long-term psychiatric care for young people in our community. Our Milton Abelove Children's Shelter together with an off campus Transition program offer immediate short-term diagnostic assessment to avert or limit out-of-home placement during a family crisis.
Over 60% of the children in care are served by Community Services. These programs are in the community and focus on prevention and short-term, emergencybased support for the most victimized local children. Our Foster Care program, coordinated through two offices in Utica and Watertown, gives over 125 children the opportunity, for some a first-time opportunity, to grow up with families in foster homes. A Non-Secure Detention program cares for children awaiting appearance in Family Court. A Non-Secure Diversion program provides an alternative to placement outside the home. The Families Foremost program focuses an array of services (individual and family counseling, respite care, psychiatric and psychological services, linkage with community support programs) to prevent removing children from their homes. Our newest program, Bridges to Health, offers community-based services to avoid, delay, or prevent medical institutional care for children with serious emotional, medical, or developmental disabilities.
The House of the Good Shepherd is classified as a non-sectarian, non-profit corporation, and is designated as a 501(c)3 charitable institution. We provide services without regard to ethnicity, religion, or financial status.
The House is certified by the Joint Commission, a national evaluator that sets high performance standards for healthcare organizations. In addition, we are licensed by the New York State Office of Children and Family Services, the New York State Education Department, and the New York State Office of Mental Health.
For more information on The House of the Good Shepherd, call 315.235.7770.
