Bowling Green Daily News | February 27, 2012
Andrew Robinson

Bellewood Home for Children is reaching a milestone but is facing a challenge.

The statewide, nonprofit agency, which provides care, education and support to children and families who have experienced abuse and homelessness, is marking 163 years of service this week.

But as the organization grows – and grows older – it’s having to do more with less.

“The needs are greater,” said Kristy Watt, director of community-based services for Bellewood. “We’re seeing kids that are coming in with a lot more complex issues, even more than five years ago, yet our services are limited. We’re having to provide a lot more service for a lot less.”

Bellewood was founded in 1849 in Louisville as an organization to care for orphaned children, and that mission has evolved.

Watt said for a long time the practice in child care was to remove children from bad environments and provide care in a residential, campus-style setting. Now, the organization focuses on keeping the family together and doing what it can to teach parents and children how to handle difficult situations they might face, Watt said.

Bellewood began offering foster care services across in the state in 2008. When it started, 16 families were participating. At the end of fiscal year 2010-11, 207 families were involved, according to information provided by Bellewood.

“Our tagline is ‘Changing lives, building futures,’ ” Watt said. “I would say that’s what we do. We strive to make relationships, which in turn fosters the ability to change the people we serve.”

Bellewood also provides support services to youth who have aged out of the state’s child-care system at 18 years old but still need support and guidance.

Watt said it’s Bellewood’s goal to continue to educate kids on the advantage of “re-committing,” because they often don’t understand the advantages or don’t have the social support network and without assistance can end up homeless.

As it stands, Kids Count, by looking at results of the American Community Survey published by the U.S. Census Bureau, estimated that between 2006 and 2010, 13 percent of the state’s children lived in areas where the poverty rate is 30 percent or higher.

Watt said since joining the agency five years ago, the agency now has a large therapeutic foster care program, which started in Bowling Green, where Bellewood has had offices since 1992.

Watt said Bellewood remains very much a nonprofit agency.

“What we don’t make up in fundraising is a loss for us,” Watt said.

And as for the future, Watt said the agency will always be in need of quality foster parents for children in need.

With the American Civil War, two world wars, The Great Depression and a slew of other historic events behind it, Bellewood Home for Children proudly celebrates its 163 anniversary this week.

Founded on February 26, 1849, in Louisville, Kentucky, as a small, charitable organization to the care for “the orphaned and destitute children,” as the original charter states, Bellewood has survived more than a century and a half because there has always been a need to help those who cannot help themselves.

Today, Bellewood is a statewide, nonprofit agency providing care, education and support to children and families who have experienced abuse and homelessness.

“Our mission from 1849 is as valid today as it was back then,” president and CEO, Jerry Cantrell, said. “The type of people we care for has changed immensely, but our goal to educate and uplift young people has kept us alive all these years despite any other circumstances.”

This photo of Bellewood youth appeared in the agency's November 1929 newsletter mailed to donors only a few days after the stock market crash.

As times changed, so did the agency.  When the number of true orphans began to dwindle in the 1940s and ‘50s, Bellewood turned its focus on youth who needed to be removed from abusive or neglectful parents.

By the 1980s, the growing need for children to have a safe home and solid education motivated Bellewood to open locations across the state.  In 1992, Bellewood opened its office in Bowling Green, and throughout the past decade has opened offices in Lexington, Owensboro and Paducah.

Today Bellewood continues to care for young people whose parents or guardians are unable to provide for them because of substance abuse or lack of knowledge on how to properly care for a family.

Kristy Watt, Bellewood’s director of community based services, has witnessed the shifting dynamic of childcare, and believes its Bellewood’s ability to adapt to those changes that has kept the agency thriving.

“For nearly 100 years we cared for orphans; then the practice in childcare was to remove children from bad environments and provide care in a residential, campus-style setting,” Watt said. “Now the focus is on keeping the family together and doing what we can to teach parents and children how to handle difficult situations they may face.”

Bellewood youth make their way to school in the early-1960s.

In response to the changing climate of childcare, Bellewood began offering foster care services across the state.  When the program opened in 2008, 16 families were participating.  At the end of fiscal year 2010-2011, 207 families were involved.

In addition to the successful residential and foster care programs, Bellewood provides supportive services to youth who have aged out the state’s childcare system at 18 years old but still need support and guidance.

“Bellewood’s services are designed to ensure every youth in our care is equipped to become a self-sufficient adult,” Cantrell said. “Whether our goal is to reunite a family or help a young adult find a safe home and steady employment, we do what it takes to stop the cycle of abuse and neglect inKentucky. We’re looking forward to the next 163 years.”

The Louisville Skating Academy is hosting its annual Skate-a-Palooza Sat. Feb. 18 and will donate a generous 50 percent of its proceeds to Bellewood Home for Children.

The Academy is also a nonprofit agency, dedicated to promoting and developing the sport of skating in the Louisville area.  The annual Skate-a-Palooza consists of a synchronized skating exhibition, a free skating clinic open to the public and the skating marathon. 

The public is welcome to attend the exhibition and must register online for the skating clinic at www.skatelouisville.org. Pledge forms for the skate-a-thon are also available online.

Bellewood is sending some of its youth to the event to watch the exhibition and participate in the clinic.  The partnership between the two agencies was formed last year when the Louisville Skating Academy was searching for a local nonprofit to benefit from their event.

Skate-a-Palooza takes place Sat. Feb. 18 from 3-5 p.m. ET at Iceland Sports Complex in Louisville. For more information, visit www.skatelouisville.org.