We exist to offer a safe and secure option for Michigan’s foster youth to stabilize and find hope, healing, and a permanent family.
Our Mission, Cause, and Hope
We provide a therapeutic and familial environment for minors who are languishing without the prospect of a permanent family of their own. Aging out of foster care should not be a viable solution.
We also provide vital intervention and support services that afford these children safety emotionally, mentally and physically. As a result of the direct care and individual attention given, the resident’s who come to us eventually stabilize and then are able to receive trauma focused therapy where they process their difficult journey, and begin to heal. This stabilization allows them to reintegrate into the community through the vehicle of a family.
Eventually, these youth grow into whole, independent and successful adults realizing their full potential. Most importantly, they receive a system of support, perhaps for the first time ever.
"This is the business we are in, this is what we signed up for: We gladly walk into the paralyzing, awful, soul-stealing trauma that has arrested every part of these sweet children, and when they give up, we say: 'That's OK, I've got it from here!' We boldly walk inch-by-inch toward the finish line marked by healing, freedom, and wholeness."
— Maggie Dunn, Founder (read this post on her blog)
Jason and Maggie Dunn, Founders
Jason is a licensed minister and has led non-profit organizations for nearly two decades. Maggie is a therapist and a woman on a mission to advocate for the vulnerable children in our communities. Jason is a fierce father and businessman. He is an unrivaled visionary who is making a way for children to be placed in forever families....and intervene on behalf of Michigan's vulnerable foster youth. Together, they founded the House of Providence in 2012 as a response to the foster care crisis in Michigan.
The Need
In the State of Michigan, there are thousands of children waiting for a family to call their own. Many of these children will never be matched with a family, and as a result, their journey will be difficult and lonely at best. Children who are never adopted will age out of the foster care system with little or no support.
13,000
Children in foster care in the State of Michigan
793
Michigan youth who age out of foster care annually
71%
of girls in foster care are pregnant by age 21
40%
of former foster youth aged 21 have experienced homelessness in the last two years
3,586
Total number of local children waiting to be adopted
25%
25% of former foster children are diagnosed with PTSD, twice the rate of US Veterans
The Work
Because of the excellent and intensive care that is given at the House of Providence, these statistics no longer have to define our residents. We give priority to finding families, closing educational gaps, promoting healing and stimulating future-focused thinking. All the while designing and implementing support systems that will last a lifetime.