For nearly 137 years, The Methodist Home has been the "Heart of the South Georgia Conference". This is affirmed over and over again as we experience the love, support and encouragement from so many of our local churches and communities. To see Christmas at the Home is unforgettable, to give a child a quilt is an honor, to see the success of a young man or woman in college is gratifying, to attend Celebration Day is exciting, to be with our youth on Christmas Eve is tradition, to see academic success is promising and to see a child baptized is inspirational.
In order to fulfill our mission of providing a healing, nurturing setting for children in the least restrictive and most appropriate environment, The Methodist Home has established Regional Group Homes to provide specialized care nearer to the child's natural home. These homes are located in Americus, Valdosta, Columbus, and St. Marys. In the future, it is expected that other services including adoption, church consultation, and training for professional child welfare services will be provided.
On the Macon campus, we celebrated the completion of The Rumford Center, and it has already been attended by 29,000 people. The center has become a major training resource in Georgia for people in the helping profession. Key events include District Youth rallies, Board of Ordained Ministry meetings, state planning committees, the Rosalyn Carter CARE-NET Site activities and ongoing training for the Department of Family and Children Services. We are thrilled to announce that The Methodist Home has been designated as a Foundation Center Cooperating Collection Site. The database is housed inside the Rumford Center and will allow the Children's Home to better serve grant seekers in our community by offering resources for grant seeking and grant writing. The Rumford Center also houses a gymnasium, weight room, racket ball court, walking track, arts and crafts room, clothing room for our youth, chapel, library and dining hall.
Our professional staff has continued to make professional contributions to the field of childcare. As one of five pilot sites for a federal grant to develop safer ways of managing challenging behavior and reducing physical restraints, we hosted a statewide conference with over 300 in attendance. We have developed an innovative partnership with CALM, the premier program in the United Kingdom for managing difficult children.
Our model of professional certification is now in 15 agencies in 5 states. We were invited to be a pilot site for a Casey Foundation/Match Grant for family centered practice with our staff providing leadership in this program.
Under the visionary leadership of Steve L. Rumford, President/CEO, the Home has pioneered several initiatives that have impacted not only our campus, but also the state of Georgia and other UMA agencies. These initiatives include CALM, Church Consultation, NCPC, and the Family Institute.
CALM is a program adopted from the United Kingdom which manages behavioral problem children. Children being restrained using this method are sometimes not aware they are being restrained because of the subtly of the technique.
The Methodist Home is a member of the National Center for Professional Certification (NCPC). NCPC provides best-practice training for social care professionals and managers in social care. Based on an international system from the United Kingdom , NCPC provides a certificate of competency that is internationally recognized and regulated.
While much has been done, we are always humbled by what needs to be done. As we serve more children, in more places, in more ways, and more effectively we are challenged to change the way at-risk children are treated in our state. In all of this we are inspired by the Prayer of Jabez and bolstered by the love, support and encouragement of so many. Thank you for standing beside us.
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MCH Feb 2009 