SEVIER COUNTY, Tenn. (WATE) — On Friday Isaiah 1:17 House added another county to their list of homes that will provide a safe place for children to enter the foster care system.
Isaiah 1:17 House is a nonprofit organization that started right here in Tennessee.
Friday’s groundbreaking was one of the first steps in building an Isaiah 1:17 Home in Sevier County.
These homes help children who are entering the foster care system have a safe space before they are placed in a home.
“One hundred and eighty-seven, that is the number of children currently in foster care in Sevier County,” said Mallory Griffin, one of Sevier County’s Isaiah 117 House Program Coordinators.
When a child is taken out of an unsafe environment and placed in the foster care system, sometimes the children have nowhere to go.
“She said she couldn’t find anywhere for them to go so they slept at the DCS office,” explained April Gillispie, one of Sevier County’s Isaiah 117 House’s other Program Coordinator.
These are stories Mallory Griffin and April Gillispie have heard all too often, which is why they decided to open the doors to Sevier County’s children in need.
“No more do our children go to a cubicle or a conference room on their worst day,” explained Isaiah 117 House Founder and Director Ronda Paulson. “No more do they feel like they’ve not been seen or heard. No more do they enter the foster care system afraid it was their fault.”
The new Sevier County Isaiah 1:17 House will have warm beds and clean clothes for these children.
“In just a few short months there will be a beautiful two-story white home with red doors ready to lavishly love kiddos,” said Griffin.
It’s a place to let the 187 children in Sevier County’s Foster Care System know they are not alone.
“That’s our county, our hometown, and these are our kiddos,” Griffin added.
The contractor, Kevin Townsend with General Contractor Citadel Construction, said he hopes to start construction on the project in two weeks.
Once they start it could take about four months to complete the project.
This may be one of the first Isaiah 1:17 Homes in the region, but there are plans for more in the coming years.
Blount County recently had a groundbreaking for their Isaiah 1:17 House.
