Institutions and Group Living

Institutions have been tried in our country and others and have failed  miserably under the old 19th century model. While many of the elements of basic human needs were present, mentoring and nurturing and elements of promoting self esteem and self actualization were missing. The children were herded from one part of their day to the next and basically just kept alive. They left the institutions feeling unloved, unskilled and with no self esteem or hope for their future. They were educated on the premises and labeled as second class, broken citizens by both the caregivers and the society in which they lived. In Russia, it is actually stamped on their passports and paperwork. There are efforts to have their status as an orphan kept confidential as it should be. Group homes and institutions administered under Orphan Coalition programs are not only efficient and scalable, but highly effective. We have found that if given critical needs, security, education, mentoring and nurturing, life skills that promote self confidence and self esteem and are given the opportunity to be a part of their own community in school and outside of school, the children leave the homes, happy, healthy and well adjusted with the same or very close to the same levels of successful integration as children raised in traditional homes.  We have found that, if given critical needs, such as security, education, mentoring and nurturing, these life skills promote self confidence and self esteem.  This gives the child the opportunity to be part of their own community (in school and outside of school).  These children leave the homes happy, healthy and well adjusted with the same, or very close to the same, levels of successful integration as children raised in traditional homes. We have seen the evidence of this in Russia, where the least likely successful implementation of our programs has been very successful. In one orphanage, where this system has been implemented for the last 8 years, 16 of the last 16 children who graduated have gone on to college and/or full time jobs.  This far exceed the statistics of non-orphan children in that country.