Residential Foster Home to open in Linden

The building that used to house the Linden Municipal Hospital on Kaufman Street will be busy once again when The Village of Open Hearts residential home for foster children opens this summer.

According to Child Advocate Gayun Matthews, the home will be ready for state inspection on April 15, and will receive residents shortly after. The home will house boys only, ages 12 and up, from all over Region 4 in Texas.

“Most of these boys will have special needs – from the abused to the delinquent,” Matthews said. “There is a need for more foster parents willing to take black teenage boys. This home will fill that gap.”

The location will also have offices for programs as needs present themselves, including counseling for teen pregnancy, drug abuse and alcohol abuse. The residents will attend Linden-Kildare CISD schools and participate in weekly church services.

The desire to help young people was instilled in Matthews by her mother, Gloria Miller, of Shreveport. Beginning in 1994, Gloria took in over 50 young females and one boy over a 20-year period. Her experience as an assistant teacher at the The Arc Caddo-Bossier, a private non-profit agency that provides an array of services and supportive programs for infants, children, and adults with disabilities and their families.

“There was this little girl in the classroom – she was blind, had brain damage and a trach – but she was the cutest little thing,” Gloria recalled. “Her momma didn’t take good care of her and let me take her home with me on the weekends and eventually I got her a wheelchair. One evening I saw on the news that her house was burning down and they showed her being carried out.”

Her four siblings had already been put in foster care, but no one wanted to take her. The CPS case worker told Gloria that if she applied to be a foster parent she could take the child home to stay with her. That child is now 38 years with her own five-year-old and doing well.

“Being a foster parent has been a blessing to me,” Gloria said. “The children just want to be loved.”

On March 26, Atlanta native and educator Melody Cranford hosted a meet and greet at First Baptist Church Life Center on Allday Street in Atlanta. She and Matthews expressed the need for more foster families in the area.

“We are here to advocate and endorse the home,” said Melody. “This is a good thing, and it’s the right thing to do.”

The group has taken donations of linens, towels and janitorial items, and is now in need of sporting equipment for boys, such as basketball goals.

For more information on the facility, their Facebook page is: Open Hearts Children and Family Services. To donate items, see their Amazon gift list: Cass County Donations/The Village. Their offices are located in Dallas.

Two local sisters in attendance were recognized for their dedication to helping children.

Latonia Garner has fostered about 40 boys and girls, age birth to five years old. Nickesha Garner, a former CPS caseworker, is currently the social worker for Atlanta ISD.

The Garner’s mother, Sylverine Garner, was a foster parent who took in over 100 teenage girls in a 20- year period, sometimes up to five at a time. It was she that instilled her daughters with a heart for helping children.

“I love every minute of a child. I love the ones that are a challenge” said Nickesha. “My coworkers call me ‘the child whisperer.’”

“My coworkers call me ‘the child whisperer’’’

- Nickesha Garner