When Jana was five days old, her mother was placed in a group home for abused women. Jana lived with her father, a man with a long history of abuse, for the first 8 weeks of her life. In the following years, whenever her father beat her mother, her mother returned to the group home. After years of neglect, at 7 years old, Jana and her three younger siblings were removed from her parents' custody. After briefly residing with grandparents who could not control her, Jana was placed with foster parents, a caring couple who soon also had trouble coping with Jana's fearfulness, distrust and aggression.

Nine of GBGM mission institutions are residential treatment centers like ACS, which provide therapeutic care, special education and skills in personal development for troubled youth and children. Many of the United Methodist related-institutions were founded by early women's missionary societies. ACS is no exception.

For more than 100 years, ACS has been helping kids in Alaska. The center was founded in 1890 as an orphanage, the Jesse Lee Home in Unalaska, Alaska, by the Woman's Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Since then, the center, located in Anchorage, is no longer an orphanage, and has grown to accommodate kids with emotional and behavioral problems. Most of the kids at ACS range in age from six to 18. Older kids, from 13 to 18, who are in the ACS's treatment program for young sex offenders, the only treatment program of its kind in Alaska, reside at ACS for about a year. The children from ages six to 14, like Jana, usually stay in cottages on another campus for three or four months. Most have been abused, are violent or are withdrawn. Many of the children are referred to ACS by parents, foster parents, doctors, teachers, courts and social service agencies. While at ACS children at all age levels learn skills to manage their anger, communicate effectively, resolve conflict, build self-esteem, and act with appropriate social behavior.

Kati Asbury, a clinical therapist at ACS, discussed Jana's case, "She was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which is common for children raised in chaotic situations. She was harboring feelings of hurt and guilt." For the first two months that Jana lived on the ACS campus in Gaylor Cottage, Ms. Asbury and the other counselors found Jana to be nearly unreachable; they persisted with caring and counseling.

Gradually, Jana began to talk about her troubled past, including the sexual abuse she had suffered. She began to participate in ACS outings, including holding a minor role in the play, A Christmas Carol. On the night of the holiday play, she gushed to a counselor, "Take my picture. I'm going to be famous!" Jana always chose to attend optional Spiritual Life activities, like storytimes and Sunday school. For many kids, the Spiritual Life program at ACS is their first experience with any kind of prayer or spirituality.

Jana's first grade teacher reported, "Although Jana initially was lagging behind the other students, she quickly caught up in reading and math." After about four months, the staff felt Jana was prepared to return to her foster parents. The ACS staff and students celebrated her successes with a breakfast party. Over blueberry pancakes, fresh fruit and bacon, the staff from the cottage shared funny memories and encouraging words with Jana. Another child in the cottage told Jana good-bye and said, "There will always be a place in my heart where you can sit."

On the morning Jana left ACS, after her pancake breakfast, she walked out of her cottage hand in hand with her foster mom. Many of ACS's staff and Jana's friends wiped tears from their eyes. Jana's foster parents hope to adopt her sometime in the coming year. "We know that this is going to require patience and consistency," said her foster dad. "She's come a long way during her stay at Alaska Children's Services."

April 30, 1999

Through the GBGM National Mission Institutions and donations received from the Advance #931430-6 and #931435-2, children like Jana are given another chance to have a family and to learn to love and be loved.

For more information on National Mission Institutions, please contact Jerald L. Scott at 212- 870-3843 or e-mail her at jscott@gbgm-umc.org.