St. Joseph’s Peace Mission will include additional services in the near future as the organization expands to include a housing program for girls 12-18 years old. As part of the nonprofit’s mission to provide dependent children, sibling groups or pregnant teens in need with a safe, caring Christian environment, St. Joseph is building the Hayden Home for Girls, which is expected to open this summer.
The Hayden Home for Girls will work similarly to St. Joseph’s newly built Yewell Home for Boys–a treatment program for boys between 12 and 18 years in age. St. Joseph’s Peace Mission Development Director Bradley DeHart said boys and girls must be court-appointed or referred in order to qualify for stay at both locations.
While St. Joseph’s emergency shelter for children, pregnant teens and sibling groups houses individuals for short-term timeframes, the Hayden Home for Girls will provide elongated stays for those who stay there.
“Girls in the home would stay here for a couple of months up to a couple of years. There’s no definite timeline,” DeHart said.
DeHart said while the Hayden Home will take in pregnant teenagers and pre-teens, it will also be available to girls who are currently parenting, among a variety of other issues and needs.
The Hayden Home for Girls will house up to eight occupants at a time.
Girls who reside at Hayden Home will still attend school, DeHart said, and they can continue to stay involved in any extracurricular activities they’re involved in before or after school. The Hayden Home will be where they spend each night and most evenings while they are enrolled in the program.
“It’s no different than your house and your family. Everything you’d do in your home, we do times 20 right now,” DeHart said.
DeHart said there’s a high local and statewide need for the kind of programs provided by St. Joseph’s Peace Mission.
“Right now in Kentucky, over 9,000 children are in state-provided care,” DeHart said. “The need for these programs is there, and it’s growing every day.”
Recent data revealed by the Kids Count Data Center shows that, in Kentucky, more children live full-time with family members aside from their parents than any other state in the U.S. Stats taken by the 2009-2018 Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Estimates show that 96,000 children — roughly 9 percent — of children in Kentucky lived with relatives other than their parents between 2016 and 2018.
DeHart said the Hayden Home for Girls should be opened sometime this summer, weather permitting.
“The Hayden family — they’re playing a big role,” DeHart said. “They support so many organizations. This is something they wanted to see come to life for us.”
Those seeking more information about St. Joseph’s Peace Mission and the Hayden Home for Girls can visit the St. Joseph’s Peace Mission Facebook page.
