Covenant News

New Ministries Start at Former Covenant Children's Home

PRINCETON, IL (February 13, 2004) - The Covenant Children's Home and Family Services (CCHFS) is not the same place it once was, but a variety of new ministries are in place at what was once the Princeton Children's Home, said Harold Spooner of Covenant Ministries of Benevolence (CMB).

Spooner, executive vice president for outreach ministries at CMB, stated in a recent report that the former Covenant Children's Home welcomed a new group of children to its facility in December. They and their parents are victims of domestic violence and sexual assault and will receive services including shelter care, transitional living, childcare, counseling, court advocacy and job training. They are receiving this assistance through Freedom House, an organization that has been serving a five county area in Illinois for the past two decades.

Freedom House had outgrown its residential space and the Covenant Children's Home facility has been renovated to fit the organization's needs. A new shelter care and transitional living care area was recently completed.

Three other services are being provided at Covenant Children's Home facilities. A faith-based clinic of the Bureau County Health and Wellness Clinic, which was founded in November 2002 but had outgrown its previous facility, is now located at the campus. The free clinic serves the under insured and uninsured in central Illinois. A school building on the campus has been renovated to provide space for examining rooms, office space and a pharmacy.

Outside, a challenge ropes course called Covenant Life Skills Development Center is being coordinated to serve churches, school groups, corporations and at-risk youth. Another developing ministry is called Intensive Marital Therapy (IMT), a four-day, on-campus program that will include state-of-the-art psychological and therapeutic techniques for helping preserve and strengthen marriages. IMT is partnering with The Antioch Group of Peoria, Illinois, to provide this new offering. Spooner stated that the program is expected to begin in the fall.

"We are diligent in honoring what our former donors wanted to our previous mission, but due to difficult financing, we had to close down the residential service at Covenant Children's Home in 2000," said Spooner. "Both the Covenant Children's Home board and the Board of Benevolence (for the Covenant) wanted to look for alternatives to continue to serve children and families on the 19-acre Children's Home campus. In seeking those opportunities, we were out in the community looking for service that served those needs that had similar mission statements to the Covenant Children's Home. We also wanted an organization that could bring its own resources to the campus.

Spooner continued, "Our options, once the residential services closed, were to close and sell the property or to look for other services that could occupy this campus. As God would have it, Freedom House was the first real solid agency that was able to come on campus and they have completely refurbished the facilities. And as a result of the work of Freedom House, we have been able to put together a strategic plan with other service options. We're also looking to hire a part-time campus manager and a part-time chaplain to provide social services in a Christian context."

For more information on the changes at the facility previously known as Covenant Children's Home, call Spooner at 773-878-8200, extension 5056. Details behind the closing of residential services can be found in March 19, 2000 and June 25, 2001, articles in the Covenant News Archive.

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