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Records of the First Lady's Office (Clinton Administration)
Melanne Verveer's Subject Files
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THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
file child defense carel
December 14, 1995
The Hon. William Perry
Secretary of Defense
Washington, D.C.
Dear Secretary Perry:
During the President's recent visit to the First Armored
Division in Baumholder, Germany, I had the opportunity to meet
with some of the families of our soldiers who will be deployed to
Bosnia and to hear their concerns. I also talked with about
twenty-five spouses of officers and enlisted men to learn about
plans to support the families during the deployment of our
peacekeeping forces.
As you know so well, the deployment of our troops places
additional stresses on individual families as well as on the
entire community left behind. I was pleased to learn that the
concerns of the families are receiving priority attention.
Many of the wives told me about the critical need for child
care on the bases before and after school hours, as well as for
respite care on weekends and evenings. I told them that I
thought that the '96 Defense Appropriations provided additional
funding for the construction of new child care centers and for
child care staff, particularly for before and after school care.
I hope it will be possible to direct these additional funds first
to meeting the needs of the families where fathers and mothers
are being deployed in Bosnia and elsewhere in the world.
I know of your strong commitment to promoting initiatives
that support and enhance the quality of life for our military
families. I hope every effort will be made, particularly during
the Bosnian peacekeeping deployment, to do whatever is possible
to support the families and provide additional resources for
child care, education assistance for spouses, parent support,
especially for young mothers, youth counselling, and other
dependent family needs.
Thank you for your longstanding concern. I stand ready to
work with you and your colleagues to support the families of our
troops.
Sincerely yours,
Hillary Hillary Rodham Rodham Clinton Clinton
CC: Tony Lake, National Security Advisor
Alice Rivlin, Office of Management and Budget Director
-
THE OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
FOR FORCE MANAGEMENT POLICY
Jan 15, 1997
melanne- -
attached is DOD's
publication on
place in response
family Friendley Work-
to the President's
initiative hPR
folhs love it. ! DOD continues
surprise
Carolyn Becrift
Clinton Presidential Records
Digital Records Marker
This is not a presidential record. This is used as an administrative
marker by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library Staff.
This marker identifies the place of a publication.
Publications have not been scanned in their entirety for the purpose
of digitization. To see the full publication please search online or
visit the Clinton Presidential Library's Research Room.
DEPARTMENT
OF DEFENSE
AND FAMILIES:
A TOTAL FORCE
PARTNERSHIP
0
Me lanne-
Mis. Clinton
wanted you to have
on Copy of this
for your fus- -
Liz
keep File under DoD
-
file
To: Mrs. Clinton
Fr: Liz Bowyer
Da: 2/23/96
Re: Hope Meadows
I did some research into Hope Meadows, the residential community for abused and neglected
children in Rantoul, Illinois. After studying recent news articles and talking with children's
advocates in the state, my impression is that Hope Meadows is an inspiring example of a
village coming together to protect and nurture its children.
I had a long conversation with Brenda Eheart, the University of Illinois professor who
founded Hope Meadows. She is an energetic advocate for foster children, and seems to be
well-respected in the advocacy community. Basically, as your news article explained, Eheart
works to place neglected and abused children who are languishing in the foster care system
with permanent families at Hope Meadows, a residential community on the former Chanute
Air Force Base. There are currently 10 families with 29 children living at Hope Meadows,
most of whom fall into two categories: Babies with special needs, whom no foster family is
willing to care for (particularly drug-exposed infants); and sibling groups with special needs
who would be spilt up in the foster care system. Eheart's goal is to have 50 children living at
Hope Meadows.
With its emphasis on permanence, Hope Meadows attracts families who have been frustrated
with the transitory nature of the foster care system. Rather than offering short-term stipends
for items like books or clothing (like many foster parents receive), Hope Meadows offers
long-term incentives like rent-free housing and an $18,000 salary for one parent to stay home
and care for the children. The families live together in one "neighborhood" on the base, and
provide a support network for each other.
Hope Meadows also has an important intergenerational component -- about 50 senior citizens
live in the community, and act as surrogate grandparents to the children. The seniors receive
subsidized rent in exchange for about 10 hours a week working with children. A number of
seniors help families by providing child care for a few hours a day, and several of them have
developed mentoring relationships with children in the community. Brenda Eheart told me
that seniors are an important part of the "village" at Hope Meadows, because they give
children a sense of being part of a larger, caring community. Eheart has also leased a portion
of the apartments at Hope Meadows to non-foster families, to help prevent any stigma that
adopted children might feel about living at Hope Meadows. Several of those residents are
police officers, and have become "big brothers" to some of the older boys in the community.
Hope Meadows obtained housing on the former Chanute Air Force Base in 1993 under a
stipulation in federal law that requires portions of closed military bases to be set aside for
public use. However, Brenda Eheart claims that it took more than four years of fighting
bureaucratic resistance at the Pentagon and at the state level before she could purchase
military housing on the base. Eventually, she was able to successfully lobby the state
legislature for a $1 million grant to purchase and renovate the surplus housing. Hope
Meadows is almost completely state-funded, although rent revenues from senior tenants cover
about one-quarter of the community's costs. Eheart says that funding from the state seems
relatively secure for the next several years, but she is hoping to find a corporate sponsor who
will set up an endowment for Hope Meadows.
The Chicago Tribune did a front-page story on Hope Meadows last week (see attached), and
Eheart says she has been flooded with calls from people around the country who want to
replicate the program. Eheart has some ideas for reaching out into the surrounding
community, but does not yet have plans to expand the program elsewhere. She has also
received a number of calls from the media, including Jane Pauley, who may do a story on
Hope Meadows in April.
(Note: I misleadingly told Melanne that Hope Meadows was only about 30 miles outside of
Chicago -- it's actually 130 miles.)
id
Community
V-
Community
a
sowing Hope
Continued from Page 1A
A $1 million grant from the
and volunteers, are building a
state helped buy and renovate the
for children
community focused on serving
former Chanute duplexes, and
children.
yearly state funding of about
"It's going to make a lot of dif-
$650,000 pays most of the pro-
BY MATT KELLEY
Associated Press Writer
ference in a lot of people's lives,"
gram's bills, Eheart said.
said Debbie Calhoun, who has
Once the program is running at
RANTOUL, Ill. - At Hope
seven children in her family's
full capacity of about 40 children,
Meadows, families get free hous-
home - two foster children, four
the costs are expected to be about
ing and an $18,000 salary for one
adopted children and her biologi-
half of the $30,000 per year it
parent to stay home and take care
aldaughter.
takes to raise a child in a group
of the children. Retired people
Calhoun said she and her hus-
home.
get reduced rent for doing every-
band, Ken, decided to move to
The idea, Eheart said, is to cre-
thing from reading to the children
Hope Meadows when it opened in
ate a community diverse in age,
to working as school crossing
1994 because of the program's
race, religion, family income and
guards.
promise of a stable, long-term
legal status of children.
The government-subsidized
family setting for foster and
Hope Meadows residents said
community, set up at an aban-
adòpted children.
it's working.
doned Air Force base, operates
Hope Meadows is the brain-
"Several of the children have
according to an African proverb,
child of University of Illinois
done a complete, turnaround,"
"It takes a village to raise a
child psychologist Brenda Krause
said Elmer Davis, a retiree who
child."
Eheart. She became concerned
moved to Rantoul from Florida to
The project is aimed at chil-
about the growing number of chil-
join the program. "One boy, Joe
d
dren who have suffered from the
dren raised in foster care, group
(another volunteer) caught him
d-
abuse and addictions of their bio-
homes or other "temporary"
spitting on us, but now he's
g
logical parents. The 22 "Hope
arrangements.
turned around 100 percent. He's
o,
children" are those in state cus-
"We have about 50,000 children
polite, a nice kid now."
en
tody who are older or have spe-
in foster care in Illinois, and
The kids call all of the retirees
en
cial medical or behavioral prob-
about one-third - over 15,000 -
"Grandma" and "Grandpa," some-
1a
lems that make them hard to
will not go home and will not be
thing that the volunteers say just
to
place elsewhere.
adopted," Eheart says. "No won-
happened.
ith
The Hope Meadows residents,
der the system is failing, when we
Still, Hope Meadows is. not
along with child-welfare workers
don't have a legal means of pro-
Utopia. Several children continue
See COMMUNITY, Page 5A:1
viding stable families. We can't
to have behavioral problems such
just let kids flounder for five
as acting up in school and defying
years or 10 years."
authority. Helping those children
While Eheart was searching
takes a lot of patience, courage
for a solution, the Pentagon de-
and love, parents said,
cided to close Chanute Air Force
"You have to be really commit-
Base in Rantoul, a town of about
ted to do something like this,"
15,000 that is 20 miles north of the
said Beverly Gardner, who with
university campus in Urbana. Af-
her husband, Larry, is raising
ter a long battle with military offi-
four Hope children. "It isn't easy,
cials and a fax to President Clin-
but what makes it easier is there
ton, Eheart's Hope for the Chil-
are so many other people who are
dren charity in 1993 became the
doing the same thing."
first nonprofit group to get sur-
plus military housing.
"I wanted to create my own
community, with the child in the
center of the community. I had no
moňey, nothing. I was crazy,"
Eheart said with a laugh.
Copyright 1996 Chicago Tribune Company
Chicago Tribune
February 16, 1996 Friday, NORTH SPORTS FINAL
EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1; ZONE: N
LENGTH: 1512 words
HEADLINE: UNWANTED CHILDREN FIND A HAVEN AT AN OLD AIR BASE;
GROUP DEVELOPS REAL NEIGHBORHOOD FOR REJECTED KIDS
BYLINE: By Wes Smith, Tribune Staff Writer.
DATELINE: RANTOUL, Ill.
BODY:
Eighteen phone calls. Eighteen child-care agencies. Eighteen
rejections. No one wanted the baby found abandoned in a hospital
restroom in Evergreen Park last fall.
Then Baby Jacob found hope on an abandoned military base 130
miles south of Chicago, where a unique long-term residential
community has been established for neglected and abused children
who are unlikely to be adopted or reunited with their biological
families.
Here children find not just parents and a home, but also
grandparents, playmates, and an entire neighborhood designed to
help them grow up in a secure and nurturing environment.
"We are going to create a new language," said Brenda Krause
Eheart, a University of Illinois professor who conceived the idea
for Hope Meadows. "It's not an orphanage. It's not a foster-care
village. It's a neighborhood with streets and homes."
Eheart had conducted a 10-year study of the adoption and
foster-care systems in Illinois, and her findings troubled her.
Too many children never found permanent homes. Too many were
passed around like unwanted pets.
With the help of a group of like-minded colleagues and
friends, the professor designed not simply a child-care program,
but an entire community that would guarantee at least one parent
present in every home, and caring neighbors of diverse ages,
races, incomes and backgrounds.
"I started with the idea of providing what I would want for my
two children if my husband and I were killed," she said.
Eheart established her Hope For the Children foundation to try
to transform that notion into reality. She had no money and no
property to work with, but when the federal government shut down
Chanute Air Force Base in Rantoul, she homed in.
For more than two years, Eheart, who has a doctorate in child
care, worked as a woman with a mission. She stormed the state
legislature and the Pentagon. "I was on the phone day and night,
trying to keep things moving," she said.
In the end, Eheart completed the first purchase of military
surplus housing by a non-profit agency--and created a new model
for child welfare in the process.
On this 2,400-acre former base, Eheart oversees 65 housing
units on 22 acres purchased for $250,000 from the Air Force. Her
command is a neighborhood devoted to saving children like Baby
Jacob.
There currently are 10 foster families with 29 foster
children. There also are 56 "senior" residents who act as foster
grandparents.
More than 48,000 children are in the child-care system in
Illinois, with 1,000 entering each month. The most telling
statistic may be that 80 percent of the state's prison inmates
were in foster care first.
"Nationwide, about one-third of the children entering foster
care each year will not be returned to their own homes and will
not ever be adopted--in Illinois, that is at least 15,000
children," Eheart said.
"Hope Meadows is for those kids."
Little Jacob is one of them. He was found abandoned in Little
Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park. Doctors suspected his
mother was a drug user so the child was placed on a respiratory
monitor.
The boy then was shuttled into the state's overloaded foster
care system. Because of his suspect health, he was first placed
as an emergency case in the privately operated St. Coletta's
social service agency in Palos Park.
He remained there for 3 1/2 months while a caseworker for the
state Department of Children and Family Services tried to find a
foster home or child-care agency to take him.
But no one wanted a child in precarious health from an unknown
background.
Then, last month, the caseworker called St. Coletta's to say
that the boy had to be removed and placed in an emergency foster
home because of the mounting costs of keeping him in private
care.
St. Coletta's social worker, Sandy Vanoskey, made a call to a
place she had just heard about through the grapevine. It was a
place that sounded too good to be true, an entire community
created as a support system for children.
Opened in May 1994 with a $1 million state grant and private
donations, Hope Meadows already is home to 29 children who were
considered unadoptable and difficult to place in standard foster
care.
Many were referred by DCFS and other agencies. Most of these
children are under 9 years old, their histories short but
shattered.
Six siblings came to Hope Meadows after being taken from a
cocaine-addicted mother and an alcoholic father serving 14 years
in prison. A 4-month-old arrived after having been in four other
foster homes. A 6-year-old had been in and out of six foster
placements.
"This is their last stop. They've been bounced too many
times,' said Eheart, who wants to house 50 children here
eventually.
"Hope Meadows is a wonderful place," said Vanoskey, who placed
Jacob there. "I've never before seen a place where adoptive
parents live together as one big family, working together and
raising their children together. It is just wonderful."
Hope Meadow's adoptive parents go through five interviews and
extensive training before being accepted. Most have been foster
parents but grew disillusioned with the impermanence of that
system. Here, they expect to keep the children that come to them.
"This is a lot different than working with DCFS, and with
everyone in the neighborhood involved, people here understand
each other's problems. Even the kids understand each other's
needs," said parent Debbie Calhoun.
"The notion of serving kids in a community where there are
intergenerational connections is, I think, actually kind of back
to the future," noted Jess McDonald, state director of DCFS and a
big advocate of Hope Meadows.
"You have a very supportive community for kids there,' he
added. "It's not for every kid, but it is a program geared toward
longer-term care in a stable and unique setting."
Another incentive for the 10 sets of parents established so
far is that they live free of charge in former military duplexes
converted into spacious six- and seven-bedroom, single-family
homes.
The program also pays one parent in each household $18,000 a
year to stay home and provide child care. There are no per-child
subsidies for schooling, food or clothing, as in standard foster
care.
It costs between $30,000 and $50,000 a year to raise a child
in state-run residential care programs. Hope Meadows is working
to cut that cost in half. Eheart, who won a $500,000 state grant
for the second year of operation, plans to establish an endowment
fund to make Hope Meadows financially independent. Already, fees
from rental apartments cover a quarter of expenses.
The people in those apartments are resources for the children
too. Hope Meadows offers a wide support system that includes not
only parents and housing, but also vuolunteer grandparents,
social service counselors, tutors, therapists, and role models
ranging from police officers to psychologists.
"We wanted other families to live here with their own children
so when our kids go to school, the other children don't know who
has been adopted and who is living with biological parents,"
Eheart said.
There is a children's library within Hope Meadows and an
activity center that offers classes in ceramics, cake decorating,
arts and crafts. Children may participate in scouting and on the
neighborhood soccer team. They attend public school at Pleasant
Acres Elementary only a few blocks away.
The neatly kept grounds of the surrounding residential area
that has flourished on the old military base includes a youth
center, a swimming pool and a golf course in a relatively secure
setting.
"If you drive around here too long, and we don't know you,
odds are your license plate will be written down or someone will
stop you, noted volunteer grandparent Bill Biederman.
Of all those who have come here to live, probably the most
enthusiastic are those who serve as volunteer grandparents. In
exchange for at least eight hours a week of baby-sitting,
crossing-guard duty or companionship, the 56 seniors live in
three-bedroom apartments for just $325 per month.
"This is the best of both worlds," said Biederman, 58, who is
retired on disability from the Army. He and his wife have seven
grown children, he said, and they moved here because of "our love
of kids."
Hope Meadows is not untroubled. The children come with
substantial emotional and behavioral problems. But the adults say
it is gratifying to observe the healing power of consistent care.
"One of the 2-year-olds came up to me when he first got here
and climbed into my lap. I was expecting a hug, but he bit me,"
Biederman said. "Now, a few weeks have gone by, and that same kid
wants to be with me all the time."
Hope Meadows resident Marlene Lankford, 56, and her husband
Garland, 72, had no children and were delighted to have the
opportunity to retire to a neighborhood teeming with them, they
said.
"One of the boys called me 'grandma' one day, and it made
tears come to my eyes," Lankford said. "Nobody had ever called me
that before."
GRAPHIC: PHOTOS 4 MAPPHOTO (color) : Debbie Calhoun hugs one of
the Hope Meadows kids in her care.; PHOTOS (color) : Exemplary of
the founder's hope, a foster child (left) and a friend walk home
from school near Hope Meadows at the old Chanute air base. In
one of the converted military houses, Debbie Calhoun sends her
charges off to bed with a kiss. At bottom, retired teacher and
volunteer Irene Bohn works with a child. Tribune photos by Paula
Bronstein.; MAP: Former Chanute Air Force Base. Rantoul,
ILLINOIS.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: February 16, 1996