Single Mothers and/or High Risk Children Refuge
After many years of helping high risk children but having little to no legal or effective means of redirecting the home life they were saddled with, our first step was to open our own home to shelter children. Over the years, we had anywhere from two to as many as eight children housed in our home, from periods of one week to as long as eight months.
This help was but a temporary Band-Aid … the parent/grandparent/care giver would later show up, take the children, and reinsert them into the drug infested, abusive, criminal, and or semi-homeless environment the children were trying to escape. These adults looked to their children as simply meal tickets, so they can continue their drug use / laziness lifestyle.
1600 CR 1109A Rio Vista
In September 2019, a new opportunity opened up when Dr Kevin Owen allowed us to rent the 1600 CR 1109A Rio Vista home…. a 4200 SF nice brick home in the middle of his 800-acre ranch west of Rio Vista. Since that time, we have housed up to four single mother families at a time with as many as ten children ages from newborns (2) to age 14 at that home. We offer them up to 6 months free rent, assistance in getting a job and a reliable vehicle. In 2021, we transitioned five such families into independent adulthood. In 2022, we have transitioned an additional four such families. Our track record is about 25 %… most of the single mothers who come to us are not ready to become adults and we reluctantly have to boot them out…. Some have only lasted one night and others less than a month. Drug use is the most common issue with those failures.
We have Genevieve and her mother, Stephanie, who manage this home for us. They also assist in the Yard Sale at our 1517 N Hwy 174 location.
We have strict house rules that are in place to guide the single mother to a responsible adulthood and to offer positive adult behavior examples to the children there.
Dr. Owen has been very supportive of our effort there.
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It is with heavy heart that we announce the closure of our facility.
In August, 2023 we reluctantly had to shut this down for 3 main reasons;
- Lack of sufficient outside financial support… much support was offered but very little came in.
- Lack of sufficient revenue from the 1517 N Hwy 174 Permanent Yard Sale
- Inability to retain House Manager family on any long term basis
We sincerely hope and pray that this type community outreach can be resurrected in the future. Many children passed through there in those 4 years and welcomed the love, security and shelter it provided.
Below is a list of some of the successes that we were allowed to be a part of.
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9948 CR 1006 Godley
About the same time, we were able to secure financing for a mortgage on a 15-acre equestrian property at 9948 CR 1006 Godley. There is a 3-bedroom home where we have a single mother with 3 children living as caretaker. She had been living in a Section 8 apartment in Cleburne, but it was not a healthy place for 3 young children.
This Godley property is where we provide the free horsemanship lessons to children described elsewhere in this website.
1517 North Highway 174 Rio Vista
Early in 2022, John Teague donated the 1517 North Highway 174 Rio Vista house he lived in for 15 years to Johns Texas Youth Rescue, where we continue to offer shelter to children in need. This property is also where we have the permanent yard sale of donated items. 100 % of the proceeds goes to support the three facilities and the children living there.
The Yard Sale donations come mainly from estate sales leftovers from nineteen Estate Sales companies in the DFW area. We have three trailers with pickup crews servicing these donations and normally get 8 to 12 trailer loads per week of donations. We also receive donations from individuals, companies and churches.
The Yard Sale is open 6 days a week, Monday through Saturday…. 9 AM to 6 PM most days… the only time we are closed is rain days.
Our buyers are mostly young families in need of decent condition appliances, furniture, kitchenware, clothing etc. Children toys and books for all ages are free. When a family shows up with their children, each child, in addition to the toys and books, is allowed one free item per visit. If a family is obviously struggling, at our discretion, we simply donate the furniture/appliances/clothes/shoes they need.
Like new couches and dressers are priced at $ 25 to $ 50. Washers and dryers are priced at $ 50.00. Chairs are priced at $ 5 to $ 25. End and coffee tables are priced at $ 10. Clothing is priced at $ 0.25 to $ 1.00.
None of our people draw salaries or expenses…. 100 % of the proceeds goes to support the single mothers and children in our care
The reward we do get is to see young adults, who were once children in our care, moving on into their own families, being responsible Christian parents and moving forward in their careers.
