CHILDHAVEN

Imagine you are a teenager at school and you get a call to come to the office; when you arrive, there are government workers waiting for you. They tell you that they are taking you to live somewhere else and you cannot go home; maybe they tell you why and maybe they don’t. And so they bring you to Childhaven. You arrive at your new home and are living with six other teenagers and two adults you’ve never met. You don't know how long you are going to live there. Eventually you find out that the reason you are there is because your parents did something wrong and they lost the right to have you. This is the situation that every kid at Childhaven is living through right now.

Why are these kids at Childhaven? None of them are here because of something they did. Their parents lost the rights to keep them because of abuse, neglect, and/or substance abuse. Childhaven has been serving abused, needy, and neglected children since 1949. Located in Cullman, Alabama we are an independent Christian, non-profit agency. Our goal is to provide each child a safe and nurturing place to live, where each child can reach their fullest potential. Childhaven exists to bring each child into a lifelong relationship with God, through his Son Jesus Christ, by meeting the individual needs of each child. We serve around 120 people everyday through several programs on and off our campus. We have 9 houses on our campus in which the residents live and each are staffed by a Christian couple (we call them house parents).

We seek to help each resident finish high school or earn a GED and we also help them go to college if they so desire. Throughout their stay they will learn the necessary skills to live independently once they become adults. We also guide them through this transition process by helping them get jobs and their own apartments. Our goal is to stop the cycle of abuse and neglet by helping them become responsible citizens.

The task given to us is a great one, but the grace of God is even greater!