Memorial Gift Funds Playground Gazebo

The 150-acre foster community in Nebo, operated by Southmountain Children and Family Services, known as Southmountain Estates, experienced a captivating upgrade in late 2022, thanks to a bequest by the late Crystal Young.

Southmountain Estates implements a one-of-a-kind model, hybridizing group care and traditional foster care. The campus consists of 8 neighborhood-style homes and the ability to serve up to 40 foster children.  “Professional” parents are employed by the agency, eliminating the need for shift work and providing stability and love craved by children in foster care. Further, the parents have unique built-in support from Southmountain staff, consistent training and models of care to help with emotional and behavioral support.

Crystal Young, a native of Burke County, loved life. After graduating from college, she accepted a job with Corning’s IT department and spent years flying between North Carolina, New York and New Jersey.  A promotion in 2015 resulted in a permanent move to New York; however, five years later, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Crystal was presented with the opportunity to telework permanently.  Sadly, Crystal passed away shortly after returning to Burke County to be closer to her parents, sisters and large extended family.

Memorial plaque

Ms. Young’s estate was divided between causes she was deeply committed to, including the children at Soutmountain Estates.  Southmountain used the funds donated from Crystal’s bequest to erect an 18’ x 18’ octagonal gazebo situated in the center of the neighborhood, adjacent to the playground.  “Crystal Young was taken from this world too soon,” says W. Chris Jernigan, Southmountain Children and Family Services Executive Director. “I have learned about her faith and commitment to children through her sister Sherry Lail, and I regret never having the opportunity to meet such an extraordinary person.  Ms. Young’s memory will live on in the laughter and memories made under this shelter.  Whether it’s popsicle parties, hopscotch, or respite from the hot summer sun, children will benefit from this gift for years to come.” 

Foster Community gazebo

Rocking chairs flank the structure's interior, a large ceiling fan provides comfort from the heat and a memorial plaque honors Crystal’s life and love of children. 

A ribbon cutting on November 19, 2022, dedicated the gazebo to Crystal Young’s life and legacy.  Loved by many, it was no surprise to Crystal’s family when friends from across the country attended her memorial service.  “We wanted to memorialize this testament to her character and her love of humanity with a gift to Southmountain, says Shery Lail.  “Our family is proud and comforted to have a lasting legacy of our sister, daughter, aunt, cousin and friend at Southmountain Estates that will provide a place for children to play and relax in nature.”

Ribbon cutting for the Crystal Young Memorial Gazebo, November 19, 2022

Every child deserves a happy childhood full of positive childhood experiences. Your financial contribution can help further the work of Southmountain Children and Family Services, which relies heavily on charitable gifts.  To further support their cause, make a secure gift online at www.southmountain.org/donate  or by mail at P.O. Box 3387, Morganton, NC, 28680. For information about the Burke County Children's Advocacy Center, call (828) 430-9949 or visit https://www.burkecac.org/. Working together, we can help prevent child abuse.

Southmountain Children and Family Services (SCFS) helps children and families overcome devastating traumas and create positive social skills, behaviors, and lifestyles.  A nationally accredited organization headquartered in Morganton, North Carolina, SCFS operates the state’s first and only foster community and eleven Children’s Advocacy Centers and evidence-based treatment centers serving sixteen counties in North Carolina: Ashe, Avery, Burke, Carteret, Craven, Edgecombe, Harnett, McDowell, Mitchell, Moore, Nash, Pamlico, Transylvania, Watauga, Wilson, and Yancey. Information about SCFS, including ways to support its work, can be found online at www.southmountain.org or by calling 828-584-1105.

###

Agency Receives Grant For Safety Equipment

Southmountain Children and Family Services has received a Janirve Sudden and Urgent Need Grant from the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina to help with security measures at its facilities.

The organization is in the process of increasing the safety and security at their Foster Community that provides residential services for children in out-of-home care as a result of abuse or neglect. The $10,000 grant will be used for the partial cost of surveillance cameras and recorders for nine group homes at the Foster Community.

Southmountain offers programs and services across North Carolina to support children and families impacted by abuse and neglect. The Foster Community is made up of nine group homes in a neighborhood setting. The agency’s parents are paid employees professionally trained to care for abused and neglected children.

“One of the great strengths of our program is the capability to serve sibling groups and to place them together within one home,” said Wendy Jodry, GCC project director for SMCFS.

Southmountain also operates 10 Children's Advocacy Centers, where child abuse investigations are done in collaboration with agencies involved in the investigation, including law enforcement, social services, and the district attorney’s office.

The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina’s mission is to inspire philanthropy and mobilize resources to enrich lives and communities in western North Carolina. Southmountain wishes to thank the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina for its generous support.

Donations to the project or the agency can be mailed to: P.O. Box 3387, Morganton, North Carolina, 28680. Southmountain is a 501(c)3, and all donations are tax-deductible.

---

Burke County Organization Has State-Wide Impact

A Burke County foster community and child advocacy organization is celebrating the opening of its 11th Children’s Advocacy Center in North Carolina.

The Ashe County CAC began operating in March and currently operates as a satellite office of the Blue Ridge CAC in Boone. It joins centers that service Burke, McDowell and 12 other rural counties.

A Children’s Advocacy Center is a coordinated child abuse response that brings multiple agencies together under one roof to provide abuse victims with the legal, medical and therapeutic support they need.

Southmountain Children and Family Services has been a fixture in Burke County for more than 85 years. Originally founded in 1913 as the Shortoff School, the organization was a specialized school for children ages 5 to 25 who didn’t have any other access to schooling. After the influenza pandemic of 1918, the school began expanding to include group home services for children who needed a place to live. By the 1930s, it had become a group home and relocated to its present location in Burke County.

For the next six decades, South Mountain operated as a group home.

“It was very dorm-style, cafeteria-style, very institutional,” Beth Willard-Patton, community engagement specialist for Southmountain, said. “They were housed in a way that was very typical at that time. The children would dig rocks from the local river, they did laundry, they did dishes and they cut fabric squares for the furniture industry. They learned but they also worked.”

According to Patton, there was a significant push to improve the living environment at Southmountain in the ’90s. This began the transition from a group home to a foster community. The new community opened in 2003.

“It is eight houses around the corner from the old rock building,” Patton said. “We have professional parents now who live in those houses. … They have kids that live in the houses with them. It’s 24/7 care.”

Patton called the foster community a hybrid between a traditional group setting and a foster care setting, saying that it offered children the best of both models.

“This model is really cool in that you get the benefits of a true foster family — children in a home with two parents,” Beth Bruder Dagenhart, children’s advocacy center program director for Southmountain, said. “You get that benefit, but you get all the support and the parts that come with group care like the therapy and all the other supports that come with it.”

Patton added that another benefit of the hybrid model is that siblings get to stay together, which does not always happen in a foster care setting.

The foster community consisted of eight single-family homes in a neighborhood-style setting with adjacent state-of-the-art facilities, including a gymnasium, alpine climbing tower, indoor pool, playground and miles of hiking trails.

According to Patton, one of the highlights of the program for children who live at Southmountain is the facility’s recreation program.

“We have an amazing rec program,” she said. “The activities that the kids are exposed to there are so unique and so beneficial and really speak to the dedication to children that our organization has.”

Patton said as part of the recreation program, children travel out into the community for fun outings as well as to participate in community service projects. That helps children who have experienced trauma to know they are still able to give back to the community, despite their adverse circumstances.

“Your situation might be dire, but that doesn’t mean you’re in this alone or that other people aren’t experiencing hard times, too,” she said.

Ultimately, Patton said the goal of the program is to provide the best possible care for children until they return to their biological parents or are adopted.

“We call this Journeys Home,” she said. “The goal is to get these kids back with their biological parents or adopted.”

At Southmountain, Journeys Home involves three components: reunification, adoption and independence. When possible, Southmountain works to reunify children with their biological parents. In situations where reunification is not possible, the agency supports adoption, helping to match adoptive parents with children and working with and supporting families during and after the adoption process.

“In either one of those cases, there is ongoing therapy that happens, either with the child and the adoptive family or with the child and their biological family to ensure that transition is supportive, positive and long-lasting,” Patton said.

Some children transition into adulthood while living at Southmountain. For these children, Southmountain works to prepare them for life as an independent adult.

In 1998, Southmountain added a child advocacy arm to its operations. A Children’s Advocacy Center is a comprehensive center that works with the Department of Social Services and law enforcement, providing legal, therapeutic and other forms of support to children who have been victims of abuse. Patton said the advocacy center was a natural outgrowth of the organization’s work with children in the foster care system.

“The care provided at the foster community shed light on the severe abuse and neglect children in Burke County were experiencing,” she said. “The Children’s Advocacy Center expanded the work of the organization beyond foster care.”

In recent years Southmountain has opened CACs in counties across North Carolina.

“Across the state we saw a need in other communities and had that expertise and were willing to take that on,” Patton said.

For information on Southmountain Children and Family Services or Children’s Advocacy Centers, visit southmountain.org.

Jason Koon, Staff Writer for the Morganton News Herald

Published April 15, 2022

---

Good Times for Teens at Southmountain Estates

With the official beginning of summer, our teens at Southmountain Estates have been staying healthy and active, exploring the vast natural resources of our local national forest and wilderness areas on weekly hikes to waterfalls. Thanks to the leadership of our Recreational Therapy interns, they are also participating in weekly creative/ expressive art projects. Our enthusiastic interns are also planning a summer bash to celebrate the end of their internships.

Our teens have also been enjoying weekly cooking classes, where they make a menu, creatively based on resources available in our food pantry, then prepare and share a delicious, nutritious meal together. As C.S. Lewis says, “The sun looks down on nothing half so good as a household laughing together over a meal.” It is a sweet opportunity to share stories and build enduring memories.

---

Professional Parents Are True Heroes!

Chris Jernigan, Executive Director, Janet Curtis, Chief Operating Officer, and the Board of Trustees of Southmountain Children and Family Services wish to recognize and honor all of the professional parents at our Foster Community. During the Covid-19 pandemic, these dedicated employees have continued to do their jobs all day every day without a break and without a minute of free time.

To protect the foster community from the potential spread of the virus and to comply with Governor Cooper's Stay at Home Order, Director Jernigan made the community completely off limits to anyone except those designated to deliver food and supplies. He also directed that no one could leave the community during this time. This means that the parents have been at home with their children without any outside face-to-face contact. They have had to cook all the meals (some of which typically would have been provided at school); monitor the children's on-line school classes and assist their children with daily schoolwork that normally would have been done at school; provide all of the recreation activities (even the recreation staff was disallowed from entering the community); and just about everything else you can imagine. These live-in parents have really stepped up to the plate without any hesitation. They are the TRUE HEROES of this time and we applaud and revere them.

We would like to publicly thank our parents from the bottom of our hearts for their tireless devotion during this trying time! Their dedication, love and care for our children have been proven beyond compare.

---