Featured Use Your Life Award

How it Began — A Nurse with Faith
With two credit cards and lots of faith, Mildred Jamison, a former Missouri State inspector of residential facilities and day programs, has given neglected and unwanted children a place to call home — Faith House.

Faith House serves children ranging in age from newborns to 12 year olds who were born exposed to drugs, HIV positive, physically abused, sexually abused or neglected by their parents. Faith House has cared for over 800 children since its doors opened almost 10 years ago.

The Solution — A Safe Family Environment
To help the children feel safe and nurtured, Mildred designed Faith House much like her own home. "We serve our meals family style where the food is on the table and the children can eat as much as they like," Mildred says. "With the nurturing, the nutrition, medical follow-up, and a good safe, secure environment, these children can bounce back."

Mildred says, "I get love from being with the children. These children have definitely made a difference in my life...it's really been a blessing." Mildred's next dream is to build a home for teenagers with HIV/AIDS.

Successful Programming
Faith House is licensed to recruit and train foster and adoptive parents. Several volunteers and employees at Faith House have become adoptive parents themselves. For example, two volunteers adopted a little boy who tested positive for cocaine at birth. He was also his birth mother's eleventh child. The boy's adoptive father says, "I wonder what would have happened to him had he not been brought into our lives through Faith House."

The nursing coordinator at Faith House adopted a little girl born prematurely to a 14-year-old mother. This child was one year old when she arrived at Faith House. She couldn't use her arms or legs, sit up, or feed herself. The girl is now on par with her other classmates; she plays basketball and dances ballet! Mildred says when she sees the progress the girl has made she's reminded, "It's all about what love can do."