I am so excited to announce the following accomplishments/c2bu milestones after a year of planning and a month of prayer :
· On October 27th, a California county director from Health & Human Services wrote c2bu the much needed “letter of need” (which means we can get funding from the state of CA if a child comes to Courage House through the foster care or probation system).
· On November 15th, the c2bu state license team and myself took the 800 page document (including the letter of need) that was C2BU’s application for a group home license to the state offices. We prayed over the binders dedicating the work to God and children who have been trafficked for sex..
We thought it was smooth sailing after this … until we were informed by the state that there was a new law that went into effect on October 8th and that NO GROUP HOMES WOULD BE LICENSED OR FUNDED FOR 12 MONTHS in the state of California! That was pretty shocking to hear after we had just obtained and completed everything we needed to submit our application! We called the license bureau and they graciously agreed to grandfather us in since we attended their group home orientation meeting 6 months ago. However, foster care said they would NOT grandfather us in without a letter of exception from the director of a county probation or child protective services agency saying that this home was of great need in their county. Without this letter of exception, there would be no state funds coming to C2BU and we would have to delay our opening as we’d have to focus all our efforts on fundraising.
Though I am stating the facts of the situation to you, my spirit was so at peace during this past week. For I know “God has the power to do what he says” and there is no human way to stop the opening of this home! So, with great confidence, I sent out emails to various counties asking for this letter of exception. We had three different “no – we won’t write the letter” until we received our “YES”! We now have our letter of need and letter of exception from the required county agencies!
Though all your efforts and prayers, we at C2BU have done our part to open this home. We have raised over $800,000.00 last year using $625,000.00 to purchase a 50 acre home, we have worked tirelessly to educate the community about this hideous crime, we have performed all the required renovations and repairs at Courage House, we opened the doors to two young women and loved them as family as well as trained them to be peer mentors, we have trained over 250 chaplain volunteers in the community as well as c2bu staff, we applied for and were awarded a grant for $125,000.00, hired a therapist and group home administrator part time, spent the last 6 months taking the vision of Courage House and turning it into a program statement as dictated by the state of California as well as fought many, many spiritual battles! Now we wait for the state to give us the approvals we need to open Courage House! Many people said it would be impossible. I love that we worship the God of the impossible!
Thank you so much for all your prayers, your sacrifice and belief in this dream. Please pray the state will award our license in “miracle” time! As we wait, we still need monthly financial partners so we can hire and train our Courage House staff. We also need to furnish Courage House. A wish list is at www.target.com (Courage House) as well as R.C. Wiley. Thank you for your partnership! I pray you have a blessed Christmas and Holiday season.