FINDING SOLUTIONS: Small houses open in Augusta for foster kids

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - We have more than 500 kids in foster care in our area.

Statistics show only half of those kids will graduate high school. 80% of death row inmates were once in foster care.

But how could those stories and stats shift if we didn’t shy away from the complicated problems these kids face while they’re young?

One woman isn’t afraid of how big the problem is. She’s finding solutions by creating a new program working with the most troubled kids in the system.

Jonathan Simpson will be the first to tell you that 19 years ago that ‘most troubled kid’ was him.

“I was getting in trouble as a young kid. I was living with my grandma. She was like 80 years old. So, she couldn’t, so I kept getting in trouble. They put me in juvenile. From juvenile I went to foster care,” said Jonathan.

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He was 13 when he entered foster care.

He ended up in the care of Cindy Simpson, who had created a sort of retreat for troubled foster kids.

“It was like a whole campus, like a college campus. Like a bunch of misfits. We didn’t fit in, but we fit in here,” said Jonathan.

Five years later, Cindy adopted him. 19 years later, she’s still working to save foster kids and find solutions for a struggling system.

“There were a lot of kids in hotels. How do we solve the problem, not only solving the hotel problem but how do we solve it to give the best care for kids? Let’s try something different,” said Cindy.

A lot of teens end up in hotels or even the hospital, for mental health holds when no group home or foster family will take them in. Jonathan knows the next step because it would’ve been his next step.

“In jail and in prison, just like that,” he said.

Cindy worked with DFCS and Amerigroup to launch a pilot program this year called Evolve. They take kids that no one else will and place them in smaller houses instead of group homes with a foster parent, who acts sort of as a house mom.

“It’s very different. You have a case manager in the home, you have a foster parent, you have behavior specialists in the home, and you only have four kids per home,” said Cindy.

The first house opened in Conyers nine months ago. The first one for Augusta opened in May and now, they’re busy renovating this one in Harrisburg set to open by Thanksgiving.

Jacquelyn Terry is the house mom who will take care of the four teens living here. She has raised ten kids herself.

“All kids are not bad. They just need attention, that’s the main thing,” said Terry.

Cindy said: “At our Conyers home, the state came in to do an audit. Interesting what the kid said: They said, ‘No this is our home, this is a family.’ Group homes don’t feel that way.”

They’re looking for the community’s help. They need everything from math tutors to toiletries.

Jonathan’s in town, volunteering his handyman services.

“Preparing the home for the kids, installing the locks on the doors, the cameras, the smoke detectors, washer, dryers, basic stuff but I love doing it,” said Jonathan.

Handyman is just his side gig because he beat the odds.

“I graduated high school and college, and now I’m a professional bodyguard. I get to take care of all the celebrities and politicians,” said Jonathan.

And all it took was someone like Cindy believing he could.

“She doesn’t move on. You can be the worst of the worst, I promise you. She doesn’t give up,” said Jonathan.

Cindy believes the real game changer here is the one-on-one attention these kids get with therapists and counselors coming into the home, a case manager on site, tutors, and so much more.

They’re hoping to bring six to eight homes like this to Augusta.

If you would like to get involved, you can Cindy at 770-823-2858 or Terry at 706-690-6507.

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