A LITTLE ABOUT US
At Kennedy Home, school-age children are given an opportunity to
overcome personal and family problems while staff work to preserve or
reunify families. Length of placement is determined by the time necessary
for the resident and his/her family to achieve their goals.
Kennedy Home is operated by Baptist Children's Homes of North Carolina
(www.bchfamily.org). Baptist Children's Homes is a nonprofit child care
organization providing residential programs and services through 21
statewide locations and one international orphanage in Xela, Guatemala.
WHO ARE THE CHILDREN?
The children who live at Kennedy Home are not strangers. They come to us from your community.
They attend schools in your area. You pass them in the store. They are your neighbors.
WHO WE ARE
WHY DO CHILDREN COME?
Family Crisis. . . Sometimes children come to Kennedy Home due to
family challenges. We have the privilege of working with children
and their families to help them overcome the specific issues that
threaten to tear the family apart.
Abuse. . .Children also come because the adults in their lives have
let them down. Precious boys and girls suffer abuse, neglect, and
abandonment often at the hands of the adults they have trusted to
love and care for them.
HOW ARE CHILDREN REFERRED?
Do you know a child or family who needs help? Is there a family living in your neighborhood or attending your church desperate to overcome the challenges threatening to tear them apart? A referral to Kennedy Home or to one of Baptist Children’s Homes other locations is not difficult or risky and can be made by anyone. Children and families are referred by themselves, departments of social services, pastors, educators, juvenile services, concerned friends, and family members. It can be as simple as a phone call or email. To refer a child or family by phone, 1-800-476-3669. You may also send an email to referral@bchfamily.org or visit www.bchfamily.org/referral
OUR HERITAGE
Historic Cedar Dell Mansion located at Kennedy Home
In 1912, William Lafayette Kenndy, a former
captain in the Confederate Army, and his wife, Emily Hardee Kennedy, gave their 1,200 acre plantation in Kinston to Baptist Children's Homes of North Carolina in order for it to be used to care for children. Kennedy Home welcomed their first child into care in 1914 and will be celebrating their centennial anniversary in 2014.
Mrs. Kennedy was so devoted to the legacy of caring for children that she sold the diamonds her husband had given her each year to build a third cottage in memory of her father. Mrs. Kennedy fell
ill, but the construction on the cottage was completed. Mrs. Kennedy thanked the builder and died that very night. Kennedy Home is unique to Baptist Children's Homes of North Carolina's other facilities,
including a fifty-acre residential campus, farmland, woodlands, wetlands, and creeks. The Neuse River runs through the property.
