Across Tennessee, more way stations for foster children on the move

DAYTON, Tenn. — Late Thursday morning, a few dozen volunteers and supporters gathered on a picturesque hill in front of a car trailer and a pile of dirt.

“Here we are!” Jenny Fine said into the microphone, to cheers. “We’re going to build a house!”

I had a particular kind of house in mind: modest, with a few bedrooms and a playroom, a storage space for toys, clothes, baby formula. But more to the point, a house designed to replicate a particular model (increasingly common in Chattanooga and elsewhere) of caring for children who have been removed from their previous home and, at least for a time, have nowhere else to go.

Tennessee’s foster care shortage has worsened in recent years, and observers say homes run by an Elizabethton, Tennessee-based nonprofit, Isaiah 117, have been a salve for a system on the brink. The new Isaiah 117 home will serve Blesdoe and Rhea counties.

(READ MORE: Rhea and Bledsoe Counties Plan Way Station for Foster Children on the Move)

After removing a child from a caregiver deemed unsuitable, one of the first tasks of the state department of children’s services is to determine — hopefully quickly — where that child should go next.

Historically, this interim period, which usually leads to placement with a relative or foster home, took place in the fluorescent-lit office of the children’s services department, Fine and others said.

But the Isaiah 117 houses—suddenly legion in the area—are designed to offer a warmer alternative.

Since establishing the first Isaiah 117 home in northeast Tennessee around 2018, the nonprofit has gone from reporting a few hundred thousand dollars in assets to nearly $19 million in the latest available tax forms. It now says it manages about 26 homes across the country, with dozens more in the works.

One of those homes arrived in Bradley County in 2021 and, particularly before more were built, quickly became a way station for children from the Chattanooga area, said Alissa Long, a former state social worker who is now regional director of the Isaiah 117 homes in Middle Tennessee.

Monroe and McMinn counties later received a shared home, as did Coffee, Franklin and Grundy counties. In October, Isaiah 117 and the Chambliss Center for Children partnered to open the first such home in Hamilton County.

Young guests remain under the supervision of the Tennessee Department of Child Services for their entire stay, Long said. The stay can last from minutes to hours, days or weeks. Each home has a capacity to accommodate between two and eight people overnight, depending on gender and sibling mix, among other things. Long said all the Isaiah 117 homes she knows of are almost always in use.

But the homes are more than just a place to stay. The nonprofit’s staff say they treat the new arrivals “with luxury” — bringing them McDonald’s meals upon request, providing them with their favorite video game and a bag full of clothes and other essentials — the idea being to provide comfort to a child emerging from a sometimes abusive home situation and entering a period of deep uncertainty.

(READ MORE: State-approved Rhea landfill expansion will provide decades of capacity and better odor control)

The name Isaiah 117 comes from a Bible verse that talks about caring for “orphans.” But, according to Long, the nonprofit does not accept state funding and neither does it evangelize children or foreground religion.

“Part of being trauma-informed is really respecting the different backgrounds and beliefs of the kids,” she said in a phone interview. “Some of them may have been really hurt in a religious setting or in the name of Jesus, and we have no idea. So we put a lot more emphasis on being and showing the love of Christ rather than really talking about it.”

The homes are meant to temporarily house children who enter the system after, according to child protection services, they have been removed from their legal guardian. But over time a wider range of guests have come to stay.

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Placing children became more difficult during the pandemic, Long said, and Isaiah 117 homes have become interim hosts for children already in the foster care system awaiting a new placement, perhaps after being removed from a previous foster home due to behavioral issues, or having graduated from a treatment center.

“We’re also meeting that need, because there’s no place for them,” Long said. “And as a social worker, I know that.”

The goal of building more homes, she said, is to provide more young people with a stable, reliable environment at a time when everything else for them seems to be changing. The inferior alternative, she said, is for the state to convince some random foster parent to take the child for a night, only to have to find another place for the child the next day.

On the phone before Thursday’s event, Fine said she came up with the idea for an Isaiah 117 house for Rhea and Bledsoe counties after stumbling upon a video of the nonprofit’s founders, Corey and Ronda Paulson.

Fine, who was adopted through the foster care system, learned there were no homes nearby and reached out to the nonprofit. The process involved submitting a video about the community being served and data to confirm the need was real.

She said about $200,000 for the project came from community members, a sum she said would be insufficient to cover the initial costs if not for the free or cheap labor offered by contractors and others. She said she expects the house to be completed and operational in less than a year.

Isaiah 117 hosted a breakfast for the contractors before the groundbreaking on Thursday. And at the event itself, Fine thanked God for forging the various connections that underpin the foundation of the new home, told his story and introduced others, including Jacob Scruggs, a Bryan College alumnus who will be the site leader for the new home. Scruggs, in turn, introduced the general contractor, Shawn Troutman, thanking him for donating the property and helping to build the home.

Next up was Hanna Pearson, a state Department of Children’s Services employee for Rhea and Bledsoe counties, who said the new home would ease the burden on staff: Travel to another county’s Isaiah 117 home can add hours to a shift, she said.

As for children, she said, the introduction to the foster care system can feel mired in bureaucracy: Almost immediately, social workers must fill out a massive document listing allergies and other essential information about the child entering state care, she said, adding that during this phase Isaiah 117 homes create a welcoming atmosphere.

“They’re greeted at the door by these volunteers and DCS workers, and they can play with them,” Pearson said. “They can play PlayStation, they can watch Netflix. They can go into the room and calm down a little bit. Sometimes they don’t even want to see our faces, because they’re mad at us. A lot of kids don’t know what’s going on. They’re sad, they’re emotional. They’re greeted at the door with love. And that means everything. It gives us a place where we can finish the work of finding a place for them.”

Contact Andrew Schwartz at [email protected] or 423-757-6431.