Mission: Children’s Village is a Christian home that provides hope and healing for abused and neglected children.
Children’s Village began serving Tyler, Texas and the surrounding counties in 1980. We have two cottages on campus that function as single family homes. We employ married couples to live in each home and serve as full-time parents. Each child placed in our cottages becomes part of a surrogate family that provides for their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. Children remain a part of these families until they can safely return to their family of origin or find a forever home through adoption.
We strive to create a life for children in our care that is as normal as any other child in the community. Our children attend public school, and our families attend local churches and introduce children to basic Christian values and principles. We celebrate traditional holidays such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentines Day, and Easter. Our children’s birthdays are some of our most special days on campus as we make a bid deal out of celebrating each child.
Our campus is a small community with two cottage homes, a playground, a school building, business office, and 100 plus acres of beautiful East Texas woodlands. Our families support each other as extended families. They engage in activities together on campus and go on outings in the community. Our administrative staff, assistant cottage parents, and their families join in campus events as well to give the children the feeling of large family gatherings during the holidays.
From 1980 through 2000, our agency focused on serving teens as they aged out of foster care and transitioned into adult living. However, a greater need became apparent around the turn of the century when placements for younger children entering the foster care system became increasingly hard to find. That is when Children’s Village amended our license to serve children from birth through age 18. We rearranged our cottages to serve babies, toddlers, and elementary aged children.
Since making that change, we have focused on providing homes for young children who are parts of sibling groups that may be separated in traditional foster care. Community foster homes are licensed to work with only boys or only girls, children under age 12 or children over age 13, or only children of school age as this helps avoid having to use daycare at the foster parent’s expense. Since Children’s Village employs Cottage Parents to be full-time parents, we can serve children of mixed ages and genders.
While we prefer to work with children from birth through elementary school age, we find it more important to keep sibling groups together. Teens are often separated from their younger siblings when entering foster care. We accept full sibling groups, even if one of the siblings is outside of our preferred age group. Siblings belong together, especially when they have lost everything else they know.
Since 2000, we have served 120 children, 100 of whom were part of a sibling group. 53 of these children have been adopted, including 47 who were adopted as part of a sibling group. 57 of these children were reunited with family members, either their parents or extended family members who stepped up to provide safe homes for them.
Visit Children’s Village at https://www.childrensvillageoftexas.org/.
