By RIEL MAJOR

Tribune Staff Reporter

rmajor@tribunemedia.net

A HOME has been opened giving children who have been in care at the Ranfurly Home for Children a chance to adjust as they make the transition to living alone.

The transitional home was opened yesterday and board member Catherine Chrisnall-Mitchell said it was a long-held dream for many boards at the Ranfurly to have a place for children that aged out of the home system.

Mrs Chrisnall-Mitchell said: “(Living here) they can do continued education; they can do job training and they can have somewhere safe rather than on occasion being forced to be returned into toxic or abusive situations because they have no other choices. Ranfurly is also trying to become a family environment and as family we want to maintain lifelong relationships with our kids. Which means at 18 we just don’t say goodbye, never see you again.

“We say how can we help you thrive; how can we help you become healthy contributing, constructive members of society and this home was a step that we thought necessary to fill the gap between them being young adults to being independent individuals.

“It’s not an entitlement, it is a privilege. You have to apply, agree to be a tenant, you have to pay limited rent, you have to keep a code of behaviour. But in many degrees, you are an independent individual, so your adult responsibilities are something you need to meet on a daily basis.”

She added: “What we do provide are community coachers that are a resource as far as your career educational choices go that again help you feel like someone is there to coach you and carry you through the tough reports of negotiating this change.”

Mrs Chrisnall-Mitchell said the board’s dream is to build ten duplex units to house 20 young adults.

“It’ll be its own village or community and part of the wider Ranfurly family. Ranfurly Home was always supposed to be Ranfurly Homes for Children so this is our step in that direction,” she noted.

President of the board Alexandra Maillis-Lynch said she wishes she could have done more.

She said: “It’s been a long time coming and I wish we could have gone faster, and I wish we could’ve done more. This is meant to be a little village, it takes a village to raise a child and this is meant to be village living and I think it’s important for the country to go back to thinking like this. Our children that leave have a very hard time finding places that are affordable, decent and not a scam.

“I don’t know how young people make it in the rent world anymore without the support team of a big family that would pay for first and last rent and help you to meet your bills if you get fired from your job. This is not enough but this is to say we started not to say this is it.”

The first tenant of the first transitional home, Lickson Presume, said he was grateful to have the opportunity to stand on his own.