Our Children’s Place Home Moves Closer to Being a Reality

 The positive thoughts, crossed fingers, prayers, and amazing hard work on the part of Our Children’s Place (OCP) supporters paid off!  The state budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 included $3.5 million for the renovation of Deerfield Cottage, the building OCP identified last year as the program’s future home.

The building is on the campus of the John Umstead Hospital in Butner (Granille County).

At about the same time as the budget was being passed, the state also hired a designer for the building’s renovation.  We are pleased to be able to work with Angerio Design.

Now the fun begins!  Our focus over the next several months will be to work with the designer and a number of community stakeholders to transfer the vacant facility into a warm, safe, and secure environment for young children and their inmate-mothers. 

We are also working with Professor Georgia Bizios, intern Katie Wakeford, and a student team from the Home Environments Design Initiative at the North Carolina State University’s College of Design to develop a 3-D model of Deerfield Cottage that can be used for awareness and fundraising events.

For a peek into Deerfield Cottage, go to http://www.nc-sco.com/Projects/projects.htm, then scroll down to “Department of Administration Featured Projects.”

“Hats Off to the Kids!” Celebration

Please join us on Sunday, November 4 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Siena Hotel in Chapel Hill to celebrate our support for the children of incarcerated women in North Carolina. 

Enjoy delicious desserts, see the Deerfield Cottage model, purchase items handcrafted by female inmates, hear about OCP's plans for the future, and celebrate!  Tickets are $25.

We look forward to sharing a great afternoon with ongoing supporters and new friends.  Please call our office at (919) 843-2670 for additional information and tickets.

OCP Welcomes Faith Community Liaison

Because the faith community has done such a wonderful job supporting OCP in a variety of ways, we felt it was time to create a staff position that will focus on developing and maintaining these ever-so-important relationships.

We are pleased to announce that Karman Kent joined our staff in August as the part-time Faith Community Liaison.

Karman moved to the Chapel Hill area this summer from Kalamazoo, MI, where she was the Champions for Children Program Coordinator at Bethany Christian Services.  She graduated from Kalamazoo College last spring with a degree in Anthropology, Sociology, and Religion.  Karman enjoys traveling, exercising, reading, and exploring the state with her husband. 

From Kathleen’s Pen

 Dear OCP Supporters, 

 Poverty, abusive relationships, substance abuse, and lack of education for any of our state’s children mean none of us can be at our best.
We, the staff and Board at OCP, are learning how to make a difference from similar correctional facilities across the nation.  Short- and long-term research within OCP about the success of women and children who leave this program will help guide us in improving our programming.  We hope to be one of the many vessels by which individuals, families, and communities are more valued – to themselves and each other.

With many things happening over the past several months and so many reasons to celebrate, we continue to be encouraged and uplifted by countless individuals, small businesses, community groups, and faith communities.  With each passing week, more people sign on to this dream.  They hear of OCP and support it through their words of encouragement, donations, and commitments of help as we move forward.

 I am again reminded of the inspiration that led to naming this project “Our Children's Place.”  OCP is for all of North Carolina’s children, our children.  Whether children find themselves residents of OCP, or become these children’s classmates, co-workers, or fellow community members, we will have “done right” by those at a most vulnerable and fragile time in their lives.

The dollars contributed by the State of North Carolina - our tax dollars - mean we can truly claim that this facility is built by all of us.  With the ongoing support of so many, not only the facility, but also the programming and staffing will also be a reality.

Please join us on November 4 at the Siena Hotel to celebrate so much success!

Kathleen Shapley-Quinn

Chair, OCP Board of Directors

 State Employees Combined Campaign

You can support OCP through your workplace giving campaign.  Our State Employees Combined Campaign (SECC) number is 3559.   For United Way, you can write in “Our Children’s Place.”

Alternative Markets

 One way to support OCP is to attend an alternative market hosted by a local faith community.  At each of the markets listed below we will have a table filled with items handcrafted by women at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women and community members.

 Sunday, November 11, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Monday, November 12, 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Alternative Gift Market

Grace United Methodist Church

401 Grace Street, Wilmington

Saturday, November 17, 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Sunday, November 18, 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Alternative Christmas Market

United Church of Chapel Hill

1321 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Chapel Hill

Saturday, December 1, 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, December 2, 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

One World Market Gift Fair

Immaculate Conception Catholic Church

810 West Chapel Hill Street, Durham

Saturday, December 1, 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Holiday Shoppe

St. Thomas More School

940 Carmichael Street, Chapel Hill

Sunday, December 2, 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Newman Catholic Student Parish

218 Pittsboro Street, Chapel Hill

Sunday, December 2, 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Alternative Market

Holy Trinity Lutheran Church

300 East Rosemary Street, Chapel Hill

For a list of faith community supporters, go to http://ourchildrensplace.com/supporters.shtml.  Interested in having your faith community included in this list?  Call us at (919) 843-2670.

FYI . . .

 “Criminal/Justice:  The Death Penalty Examined” is a campus-wide conversation about the death penalty and the criminal justice system in the United States.  To learn more, go to http://www.carolinacreativecampus.org/.

Carolina Performing Arts at UNC-Chapel Hill is facilitating this project.

Board of Directors

Mary Andrews, Secretary

Jean Anoff

Karen Chapple

Dorothy Cilenti

Kim Hoke, Vice-Chair

Dr. Joseph Jordan

Beth McAllister

Florence Peacock

Meg Scott Phipps

Rich Rosen

Dr. Kathleen Shapley-Quinn, Chair

Mary Stowe, Treasurer

Supporter

Ellie Kinnaird

 How To Reach Us

Phone                                       Fax

(919) 843-2670                        (919) 962-3725

Mail

P.O. Box 1086 • Chapel Hill, NC  27514

Office

Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History • UNC-Chapel Hill • 150 South Road • Chapel Hill, NC  27599

E-mail

Melissa Radcliff, Executive Director ourchildrensplace@gmail.com

Karman Kent, Faith Community Liaison  ourchildrensplace3@gmail.com

JoAnne Morris, Bookkeeper  ourchildrensplace@gmail.com

Cassie Smith, Program Development Assistant  ourchildrensplace2@gmail.com

 Website  www.ourchildrensplace.com

If you wish to be removed from our mailing list or if your contact information has changed, please call our office at (919) 843-2670.