As a teen, Katlyn Ball had a depressingly low sense of self-worth after being harmed in the care of adults she trusted.
When she was 14 and living with her mother in Central Virginia, she dated an adult and used drugs. A relative filed a report with the Department of Social Services, and Ball landed in a temporary shelter for children, then a group home and eventually at the Virginia Home for Boys and Girls (VHBG) in Short Pump.
That was when the healing began. The Virginia Home for Boys and Girls provided Ball with a safe place to live and attend school, as well as therapy, recreation and reassurance from supportive caretakers. Counselors and mentors imparted social, life and coping skills to address her ongoing anxiety and depression. Ball, who has cognitive difficulties that impeded her progress in public school, attended John G. Wood, a Virginia Department of Education-accredited alternative K-12 school on the VHBG campus.
Now 19, Ball lives on her own and is seeking a career that involves assisting children or animals. She’s also cultivated a strong love of herself. “VHBG saved my life,” she says. “It really showed me there were people that really care and wanted to see me succeed. … They taught me to be more open and advocate for myself.”
Unique Circumstances
Founded in 1846 as the Richmond Male Orphan Society, VHBG has evolved to serve children who wouldn’t thrive in psychiatric care and are not emotionally prepared for foster care, says Joan Marable, VHBG spokeswoman.
“They’re experiencing a lot of trauma, abuse, neglect and abandonment … that may manifest in behaviors that make them unsuccessful in foster care,” she says. “Some children, before they go into foster care, need to start to heal from their trauma, and that’s why they come here first.”
VHBG provides a residential setting focused on developing coping skills and maintaining academic and social normalcy, with the goal of each child succeeding when he or she leaves the home. The length of a youth’s stay is determined by the family’s ability to care for them. An average length of stay is eight months.
Claiborne Mason, president of VHBG, says a goal is to prepare children for Department of Social Services placement in nurturing family settings, or a return to the biological family. “We are not in the business of putting kids in group homes,” she says. “We are on a mission to get kids back to families.”
A Healing Place
The Virginia Home for Boys and Girls campus is verdant. During the summer, kids swim in the outdoor pool and play in a central courtyard filled with well-established trees. At the courtyard’s center is a large, historic iron bell heard far and wide when it’s rung by students to mark graduation from John G. Wood. But while school is in session, there’s almost no sound, except that of birds chirping.
The quiet belies the nonprofit’s location near Parham Road and West Broad Street, minutes from busy Short Pump Town Center. It’s an ideally therapeutic setting to serve youth through three programs: group care for children, independent living for young adults and alternative education, says Lionel Bacon, vice president of philanthropy.
Lionel Bacon
“We are hidden in plain sight; there are people who drive by and have no idea we have 30 acres back here and 22 buildings, and we’re healing kids,” he says.
VHBG moved here in 1957, and the John G. Wood School opened in 1974. The second oldest continually operating home for boys in the United States, the organization’s name was changed from Virginia Home for Boys in 2004, after girls were admitted to the residential program the year prior.
Through the decades, VHBG has added and changed services to keep pace with society’s evolving child welfare needs and priorities. Most significant was the move from an orphanage model to a group home setting that emphasizes a familial atmosphere and preparation for placement with families, Marable says.
“Due to war, tragedy and illness … in 1846, there were so many children who had lost their whole families or parents, so that’s really why an orphanage was great,” she says. “We fast-forward several decades, and our society has realized kids in institutions is not a good thing. They should be with families.”
VHBG serves about 200 children each year. That includes up to 60 youth ages 11-17 in its group care services, as many as 12 youth ages 17-21 in independent living, and 61 K-12 students at John G. Wood School. In-house psychiatric services that include counseling and medication management are available for youth in all programs and the wider community.
Its alumni, who regularly return to mentor youth, include Jim Hingley, 72, former alumni association president. Hingley and other alumni have held regular workshops on morals and life skills, with messages tailored to specific age groups.
“We'd get the teenage boys together, and we'd have group discussions, talking about everything; changing tires, girls and education,” he says. “Then we would have one for the little boys.”
Joel Woodward, 38, who lived at VHBG for eight years and through high school, says staff taught him that actions have consequences. As an abused and angry child, without guidance at home or at a psychiatric facility where he was placed previously, Woodward was in dire need of mentoring.
“When I got there, I did really well. As long as you did what you were supposed to do, you could do whatever you want,” he says. “That’s what people don’t get about group homes: If you give it a chance, you can do really well.”
Woodward fondly remembers good behavior rewarded with hours in the pool, basketball games, video games, day trips and model cars. “It was family,” he says. “We had things to do, and we all protected each other.”
That cultivation of responsibility and family continues today in a group home setting that often allows siblings to live together. Small groups of residents live in remodeled homes with airy kitchens and living rooms painted a soft blue that open onto back porches. A calendar charts cooking and cleaning days alongside weekend apple and pumpkin picking and movie nights.
Most residents attend public schools, but some students whose emotional and psychological difficulties prevent them from thriving in public school attend the John G. Wood School, an alternative education program that also serves students throughout Central Virginia. Similar to public schools, students are required to meet benchmarks such as sitting for annual SOL testing, but receive behavior coaching that would allow them to transition successfully to public schools.
These students are bright and capable of improvement, says Jason Kissoon, assistant principal. The biggest breakthrough comes when you earn their trust, he adds, then they start putting lessons into action.
“Once they trust you and they understand that this is someone who has my back, seeing them use the coping skills, and even apologize when a bad word slips out of their mouth, like, ‘My bad, Dr. Kissoon’ … That’s real big,” he says.
The healing doesn’t stop when children become adults. The Independent Living Arrangement, created in 2018, helps youth who have aged out of foster care transition to adulthood. Independent living residents receive life and job skills coaching and are required to maintain employment or be enrolled in an educational program.
Woodward, who left VHBG after graduating from high school, says the independent living program is an invaluable lifeline. “When I left VHBG, I didn’t own my own home. I had an 800-something-dollar apartment to pay for right off the bat,” he says. “They realized there was a need and they are filling it with the independent living program, trying to teach these kids life skills so they can move on and be successful.”
Many Helping Hands
VHBG’s $7 million annual operating budget relies on funds for youth services created by the state Comprehensive Services Act, and on philanthropy. Many civic groups and individuals have helped out over the years through in-kind contributions and fundraisers. Examples of community largesse range from a master electrician who wired a kiln that was donated to John G. Wood School’s art department by the Auxiliary, to the James River Aquarium Society maintaining two aquariums filled with non-aggressive fish that provide a calming atmosphere for youth while they wait for therapy appointments.
VHBG also receives significant support from corporations. Lowe’s, for example, donated materials and labor for major repairs and renovations for aging buildings, landscaping, a new playground, and a pergola over the pool. Many of the volunteers devoted their weekends off.
Also, Gap and Banana Republic provide and stage items in the on-campus store, where older youth can pick up needed supplies and all residents can select on-trend clothing. “We want to restore dignity to our youth,” Marable says. “We don’t want to just take them to a pile of clothes and say, ‘Hey, you pick something out.’ ”
Joel and Kim Woodward
Ending Cycles
During his time at VHBG, Woodward discovered he had a knack for computer repair, information technology and business. As a youth, he would repair computers and sell them to staff. Now, he and business partners ensure that VHBG wireless technology stays up and running and also serve other nonprofits. He married his high school sweetheart, whom he met while living at VHBG, and the couple have two daughters.
Woodward and Hingley say VHBG provided an environment that fostered progress and allowed them to draw on their experiences to become effective parents. “I got opportunities I never would have had living with my mom,” Woodward says. “As a child in Hampton, I lived in two sets of projects. I probably would have remained in the projects. The opportunities I got here were massive. … The family I gained from this place is still with me.”
Hingley, who has three sons and a daughter, says, “It was my goal to make sure it was different.”
Hingley knew he accomplished this after a heartfelt talk with his oldest son.
“I asked my oldest son, one time when he was growing up, I said, ‘If you could describe your childhood in one word, what would it be?’ And he said, ‘Happy,’ ” Hingley says. “That would’ve been the one word I was hoping to hear.”
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