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Society needs to be committed to the children of today and invest their efforts and resources or we can hardly expect any future dividend. Essentially, ours is a "no deposit no return" culture and that description is equally pertinent when we consider how we can reach today's troubled children. To a great extent we "discard or "dispose" of the children of our society like old cartons or bottles. The contemporary reality of "disposable children" may seem to be less heinous and consequently, more humane than the treatment of children described by the ancient Greek historian, Plutarch, or the Roman historian, Tacitus. Both vividly described "child exposure", the practice of casting out newborn infants or simply letting them die. In Rome the decision was left to the father. Unless the father "lifted up" the infant placed at his feet, thereby symbolically acknowledging acceptance of the child, it was left "exposed". It is not surprising that both Jewish and Christian writers condemned child exposure, as we do today, but we have more subtle means of dispensing with contemporary children. Multitudes of children in our society today, from the time they are born, are exposed, neglected, abandoned, and abused. They are addicted to their parents addictions. They are left to fare for themselves on the streets of our cities. They survive by selling themselves or stealing. Many are brutalize by their mom or dad, or a stepfather or stepmother. They are brutalized, and thereby learn to brutalize. Those who care must take a stand and "lift them up" and provide for them a shelter of safety, where they are accepted and affirmed, nurtured, and prepared for a responsible and productive adult life. This constitutes their greatest hope and the hope of society. The hope that through long term placement at Kleos Children's Community where loving investment is made, such children of today will be able to someday create a healthy home and family environment of their own. The fact is that many of today's children are "throw away children", castoffs, rejects, disposable and dispensable. Unless a caring society makes a "deposit" today, we cannot expect any "return" tomorrow. This much we know, a mere "institution" is not that attractive. Short term residential treatment that only Band-Aids the problem has rarely proven effective. If we are interested in care, not custody; if we are truly interested in our quality of child care and not just the numbers we have had in custody, we must stop passing hurting children from agency to agency, program to program, house to house, like poker chips on a gaming table. A new approach must be taken in providing care for children in need. Understanding, then, that failure breeds failure, we need an alternative to break this continuous cycle. There needs to be a long term child care program designed to breed security, with incentives for positive growth, and the encouragement that builds up personal identity and self-worth. A broken and wounded child needs to regain their self-respect, but they need a great deal more from this world in those tender years of childhood. They need to belong to something--a home, a family, other children, a community. They need the strength and backing, the feeling of relationship with a mother and father who care, they need to be with other siblings. the need the feeling of security, direction, the guidance, the caveats, the plaudits, the knowledge of social patterns and values which home, parents and others supply. What they don't need is a quick fix program that runs them through like some kind of chattel that is only interested in producing numbers and beds for dollars. What wounded children need is an education, rearing, and guidance that is necessary for positive personality development. They need to find fulfillment in the conventional structure of a home; deprived of it they will be crippled. The most strengthening and salubrious emotional experience necessary for a child is to be placed in a family learning to love other human beings who return that love. The family environment is a preventative agent for the cure of the deficiency disease with which abused and homeless children experience. It is a medicine more powerful than any known vitamin, or known medication. It acts upon these tender growing personalities like powerful beams of some special mysterious form of ultra-violet light. It destroys beginning virulent growths of psychological cancer - malignancies which, if they are not checked, become increasingly destructive. If we are serious about large scale prevention of delinquency and crime, we must greatly multiply our efforts to rescue these children before they are ruined. But rescued to where? Rescued to whom? Who has love for sale? This, schematically, is the rationale and philosophical basis of Kleos Children's Community. To rescue and offer a long term residential community and teaching arrangement unequaled anywhere for children who have no homes to which they can or should return. This is a community for the abused, neglected, offended, homeless, runaway, and "throwaway" child, where he or she can find an atmosphere of healing, an atmosphere of positive environment, where the child can gain a strong identity and self-worth. Where the children are prepared to one day return to society; where they can be in such an environment that they can be set free from the bitterness and pain of their abuse. Kleos Children's Community has several homes that comprise a community - whence the name, "KLEOS CHILDREN' S COMMUNITY". Most certainly not for punishment! We are talking about long term preventative care. Each home at Kleos Children's Community has its own "Home Parent Teachers" who act as surrogate mother and father. These parents will serve as models of maturity and activity and as sources of love and counsel. They establish and maintain the family routine and the daily schedules. They work closely with the school teachers and assist in special education programs. A new way of live can only be taught by mature people who themselves possess the vision and the dedication, hence the proper orientation, training and counseling of these key people. The Home Parent Teachers are of the utmost importance. A training program for the parents is a corollary project of our main program. A grandparent program consisting of retired people providing love and encouragement to the children as grandparents is also a vital part in our program in serving the children as models of maturity and activity. But how? In what direction? With whose help? Toward what social position? A leader? A dependent? A criminal? Whose responsibility is it to rescue these waifs and prevent their inevitable corruption? Whose responsibility is it to repair the damage of disease and disaster and irresponsibility and restore to tender, growing children the protection and benefit of a loving home and a loving mommy and daddy? Can we expect the State and Government to do it all? Or can we expect individuals, professionals, churches, businesses, and corporations, and the like, to take on this burden to support such an agency as Kleos Children's Community who now has become an asset to the Oregon State Offices for Family and Children, and has rescued numerous children in need of privately placed long term child care. Consider these precious children to have fallen among thieves, the thieves of ignorance and ill-fate and loss. Their birthrights, self-esteem, self-respect, confidence and provision have been stolen. They have no belongings, no claims, no plans, no loving friends. But THEY ARE HERE! THEY ARE OURS! THEY ARE US! They are growing up among us and will replace us--some obliged to live in crowded, loveless institutions, or some short term psychological verbiage. Will individuals, professionals, churches, businesses, corporations and the like, feel inclined to accept or seize this opportunity and responsibility and join the state in this great mission effort? In some of these children we may never see the end result of our efforts and investment in our lifetime. For others, we will only have the privilege of planting a seed. No method has all the answers, or could boast of a one hundred percent success under vigorous evaluation. The homeless, the troubled, the abused, the neglected, the runaway, and the throw away child will come to us in increasing numbers at Kleos Children's Community. When they arrive, they will be anxious, fearful, and sometimes resentful. Others will be hurt, angry, or bitter. This is natural. Some will be problem-free who just need a loving mom and dad.
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he purpose of Kleos Children's Community is to present a long term child care plan and facility that stands accountable, effective, and on the cutting edge of successful child care. Included in that plan will be an enthusiastic effort to increase public awareness of the multitude of children in need, and then to stand with those individuals, professionals, churches, businesses, and corporations who desire to serve children in need of someone to care. It means a confidence to lead in providing a protective and prophetic voice for children who need long term placement. It means a continued vigilance, that we creatively develop funding
sources which will under gird our future in providing loving homes for abused, neglected, and throw-away children. This includes both privately placed children and children placed by State and Family Services. It means that we love before we are loved, that we care before we are cared for. It means a recognition of the countless youth who are broken, rejected, and who experience daily despair because they are in need of a long term investment of care. It means an obligation that we love the unlovely, and that we provide a program that will give children experiences of love, mercy and forgiveness. A program that will edify, and build up those whose lives have been wounded, and whose self esteem needs to be encouraged. It means an acceptance of responsibility to those who care, those who are individuals, churches, businesses, and corporations that together we provide caring long term residential care. 