Perched on the top of a hill at the North end of King Street sits the Sunshine League Children’s Home. Once an orphanage, the facility is now home to children who are at risk in their natural home environments.

The home is a privately run charity governed by a voluntary board but all its residents are referred from Government’s Department of Child and Family Services. It receives an annual Government grant. Children there may come from homes where parents are drug addicted, or where their basic needs are being neglected.

Executive director Denise Carey said she and her staff operate the facility like a real family. Children have chores. They have set homework time and activities they do together regularly.

“We have Book Club on Monday nights where men in the community come in and read a story to the children and talk about their work,” said Ms Carey. She said most of the residents lack a strong positive male role model and that the book club gives helps to rectify that.

The Food Service Coordinator teaches the children menu planning and cooking each week. This prepares them for the real world. “Life skills are a very important aspect of what we do with the children here,” said Ms Carey.

“We don’t know where they will go when they leave us, they may be 18 and they will need to have been taught these things.” So the children have to do laundry, hang out clothes, wash dishes, some general cleaning and are responsible for attending to their own personal hygiene.

There is a special movie night and time where they do special projects.

The home accepts children from eight-years old to 18. Currently ten are in residence. It is a co-ed facility, with boys living in one area and girls in another. The areas are separated by an alarmed door and window. “We need to have that to protect them from themselves,” said Ms Carey.

The identity of residents is confidential and so there is a special room where children can meet with their families privately. There is also a large dining hall and kitchen, laundry room, playroom and study area. Bedrooms and bathroom facilities are on the second floor.

Ms Carey said she tries to keep children in the same age group together, and siblings together. But boys and girls, even if they are brother and sister, sleep separately.

Younger children sleep in a dorm room arrangement while older children may be just two to a room.

None of the 18 staff or the executive director is resident at the Sunshine League. Most of the staff is employed part-time. Late afternoon and evenings are busiest as that’s when the children are home from school.

Ms Carey said at those times the facility operates at a ratio of one assistant for every five children. Late at night the ratio drops to a single assistant for ten children. “If we do have a child who needs one-on-one care we will bring on an extra person,” she added.

The assistants are called Child Life personnel and work directly with the children. They operate in three shifts which Ms Carey notes, “are all awake shifts”.

The home has only five full-time employees: the Executive Director; Supervisor Judith Burch; Food Service CoordinatorJean Outerbridge; and two Child Life staff, Dawnette White and Alphia Talbot.

Chairman of the governing Board is Jill Husbands, vice-president is Kathleen Faries. The Board currently has a Facilities Committee; Special Events Committee; Fundraising Committee; and a Volunteer Committee.

Anyone wishing to be involved in programmes at the Sunshine League may contact Executive Director Denise Carey on 292-4360.