CHANDLER, AZ — A Chandler nonprofit and community volunteers transformed a group home for girls in foster care in just six weeks.
What started as a simple request for matching bedding turned into a full renovation of a new group home for girls in foster care in Chandler.
Cherrie Vierra, a foster mom who runs the Branching Out Foundation, a Chandler nonprofit for kids in foster care, was asked to donate matching bedding for the new home. Then she saw the house.
“I had made decision in my head, even if I had to fund it myself, I was going to do something special with this house for them.” Vierra said.
Community groups, businesses, and volunteers jumped in and transformed the home in six weeks.
PowerHouse Youth Facility runs the home. Owners Glen and Felicia Mayberry opened this home after Arizona’s Department of Child Safety called, needing more group homes for girls. They wanted more than a place to sleep.
“I wanted something that was evidence based, I wanted something more than a group home, so what we decided to do was open up more of like a foster home setting for these young women where we were going to have a curriculum, evidence based programs, to help these young women move toward self sufficiency,” Glen Mayberry said.
Soon, 10 girls ages 11 to 17 will move in. The home serves girls who’ve survived abuse, exploitation and significant trauma.
As of June 30, the state counted 6,951 Arizona kids in out-of-home care. 849 of them lived in group homes, where Vierra says the feeling of home is often missing.
This one has a name: Rhinestone Ranch.
“We were thinking we were getting matching sheets and the girls really got a home that I think for many years they are going to be able to call this space home,” Glen Mayberry said.
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