The Alternative Family Program is based upon the therapeutic foster home concept. Trained volunteers open their homes to adults with mental illness and treat them as new family members. Loving relationships are built as volunteers look out for their residents’ well-being and care.
Tom,
Larry
& Todd
I give them a family—not an institution.
The walls are thickly adorned with pictures, photographs, and memorabilia. Crayon drawings of palm trees and self-portraits. Photos of smiling faces among smiling faces. Souvenirs from road trips and vacations. This home feels like it has been built on a foundation of many years of love and affection and support. It is a true family home. It is the home of three schizophrenic men who have found a family in the Alternative Family Program.
Betty is their caregiver. For 15 years she has provided Tom, Larry, and Todd with support, affection, and the open arms of her home. She regards them only as family members, something one would never find in a state institution, and loves them as her own sons.
And they love her as a mother.
Betty offers them comfort, security and independence. Their bedrooms are uniquely different to reflect their individuality. Todd, being quite the writer, has a typewriter on his desk. His shelves are lined with knick-knacks and collectables. Tom and Larry share a room. The large windows in their room create the perfect lighting to display many of Larry’s drawings that hang on the walls. The pride these men take in their living quarters is obvious; it’s reflected in their beaming smiles and in the sweep of an arm, a gesture that says “Welcome to MY room”. Betty has given them a TV room in the den that leads out to a beautiful garden in the yard. Outside, paths wind around the trees and bushes and there is a swing-set beside a flowering rose bush. The yard is shaded, cool and serene.
It horrifies Betty that so many people are not given the opportunity Tom, Larry, and Todd are afforded. It’s intuitive, it makes sense—home is where the heart is. The relationships and normalcy that exist in Betty’s home are impossible to find in an institution. She insists on the program’s success and how it encourages stability.
Betty has given these men a garden to grow in and to flourish. Like a garden, Betty tends to them every day with love, encouragement, and support.
