Children end up at Our Little Haven in St. Louis for many reasons: some, born premature due to prenatal drug exposure, have special developmental needs. Others, born HIV-positive or victims of abuse, have special medical needs. Recognize the guy on the right? That's actor Scott Bakula of Enterprise, the Star Trek series. A St. Louis native, he headlined a show for the benefit of Our Little Haven. Other big-name sponsors of the institution, which has grown in many ways these last ten years, include A.G. Edwards, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Anheuser-Busch, and Boeing.

by Scott Hummel
photos by Ann Julien

Since Company last visited with us many years ago, Our Little Haven has been blessed with the opportunity to continue to serve many abused, neglected, and wounded children in the St. Louis area.

We wish we could report that the problem of abuse and neglect has left the community and that all children in our area are safe and loved. Regrettably, community problems continue to subject many children to the nightmare of broken bones and broken hearts.

Our Little Haven can look back at these last years and think about the kids who we have been able to get out of danger and into permanent homes. We have been able to keep tabs on about two-thirds of the 600 children who have come through our doors and know that about 90 percent of them are still in the homes where we placed them. Such success keeps us going, but there are always more children coming our way.

Our work often starts with a call from the Department of Family Services or from Judge Frawley, the juvenile court judge here in St. Louis, with a report of a child who's a victim of physical or emotional abuse or suffering from prenatal exposure to drugs or HIV or both.

Children removed from their homes under court order become wards of the state. Once the court and state authorities get involved, the family is virtually destroyed and the pieces of the family are displaced. Some are placed with other family members or in foster care, while others find new homes in residential facilities, including Our Little Haven, which opened its doors in 1993.

Since that '95 Company magazine story we have grown in many ways, physical plant among them: two more residential buildings, an administration building, and a family center, which all told ran well over $500,000 to purchase and rehab. Our staff has more than doubled, from 30 to 62, and our budget has kept that same pace, growing from around $1 million to $2 million.

We credit our chief financial officer, Mike Bollinger, with helping us in this growth process and developing a strategy based on mission. About one-third of our budget comes from contracts we have from Missouri's Department of Family Services and the Department of Mental Health. We get generous assistance from our corporate sponsors -- Boeing, Anheuser-Busch, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and A.G. Edwards among them -- and other religious groups besides the Jesuits, including the Vincentians, the Daughters of Charity, and the Sisters of Mercy. Organizers of two yearly events, a dinner dance and a golf outing, are in friendly competition to outdo the other every year; each event raises a welcome $100,000. Such support has allowed us to increase the number of children we can serve in the residential program from 12 to 36.

This growth has allowed us to evolve and expand our mission. For instance, at Our Little Haven's Taylor Family Care Center we now recruit and train foster parents and those looking to adopt. Additionally, we are now licensed by the state to step in and help troubled families with little kids, allowing Our Little Haven to practice "preventative medicine." Five caseworkers at the center work with families referred to us by the state and find them the help they need -- housing, job training, parenting skills classes, you name it -- to head off situations that could possibly lead to abuse. They continue working with these families after that to keep them intact, self-sufficient, and healthy in every sense of the word.

Our volunteers, now around 130, provide us with 1,700 hours per month of help, and our staff now includes Maureen McCreery, the full-time manager of our residential facilities, and Dr. Lizette Smith, a full-time clinical psychologist who specializes in early childhood assessment and treatment.

Chris Chaston is one of the over 350 volunteers who contribute an astounding 1,700 hours monthly to Our Little Haven, from playing with the children to filing papers in the office. Chris is among those who provide one-on-one time with the kids, including taking them on field trips and arranging birthday parties.

It takes a lot of hands to heal these children. Broken bones can be dealt with; where the real work comes is in healing the broken hearts these children bring with them, helping them understand that they are loved, helping them to grow and live and learn and thrive, to feel nurtured and important. This is where the hard work from many people comes into play-more important, this is where we turn to God because we can't do it and we don't dare try without seeing the face of God through the tears.

God has allowed us to grow in many ways. Certainly this is obvious when you see the buildings and hear about the programs. But this growth is obvious as well on a very personal level.

Jasmine had just come to live with us when we were last in Company's pages. A beautiful little girl, she had many, many problems. After going through horrific physical and emotional abuses, she came to us as a violent, hurt, angry little girl. Her successes at Our Little Haven came slowly; her failures were many.

Jasmine had difficulty trusting people. She couldn't, or wouldn't, follow rules, she routinely acted out sexually, and she displayed a thousand different types of inappropriate behaviors -- all stemming from her horrible experiences as a little girl. But the staff and volunteers hung tough; eventually her violent behavior began to soften as she absorbed the love we gave her. She grew, through prayers and God's grace, into a beautiful little girl, a gentle and fun-filled kid. She blossomed and left us to go live with her new family brought to her through the adoption program.

Our Little Haven is most of all a place where kids can be kids. Scott and Kathy Mummel purposefully solicit help from far and wide to invest as large a part of St. Louis as possible in their vision. The garden (left) is a good example. The statue is the creaiton and donation of Br. Mel Meyer of the Society of Marianists. The catering staff at the dome, where the Rams play, come out yearly to plant all those perennials. The walkway bricks bear names of hundreds of other donors.

She's 13 now, and we visit with Jasmine every once in a while. She's very busy -- you know how teens are -- and she's full of love. Jasmine remembers her stay with us. She remembers her room, she remembers Ms. Kathleen's loving touch, she remembers being surprised that when she helped clean her room she was praised and rewarded with outings to the park or zoo. She remembers seeing her "Angel" protecting her at night. When asked about her angel, Jasmine just smiles and grins, knowing her protector was there to comfort her.

Scott and Kathy Hummel's original goal for Our Little Have, founded in 1993, was to catch abused infants and children at an early age and help them overcome the hurt. They have taken that concept of intervention further; new programs help families at risk head off situations and solve problems before abuse has a chance to start.

We see God's grace in Jasmine, and we also see it in Fr. Robert Weiss, SJ. Let me back up this update a little. After Kathleen and I received master's degrees in social work from Saint Louis University, we began our careers, she at a children's home and me at a homeless family shelter. Soon, Kathleen had the vision of serving young children who have suffered through abuse, neglect, drug exposure, or HIV impact.

Kathleen began working to make her vision a reality. Naturally we turned to family and friends and, just as naturally, they offered help. They were an easy sell. After all, they're our family and friends. And when we decided to invite the Church to participate, we approached Fr. Weiss, who was president of Rockhurst University when Kathleen and I were undergraduates there.

Everyone in St. Louis seems to know Fr. Weiss, past president of Saint Louis University High and current treasurer of the Missouri Province. He was the first to ask us difficult questions, to get us to take off our rose-colored glasses.

Author Scott and Kathy Hummel live in St. Louis with their three children.

Fr. Weiss brought us closer to reality through his experience with business plans, forecasts, and needs analysis. He helped us secure a building to call home, he opened doors previously closed, he forged strategic alliances in the business community, and he helped us devise programs, plans, and budgets. But more important, through his good nature, approachability, and holiness, he taught us how to ask for and accept God's graces and reminded us that we were not bringing God to these children but finding God in these children.

Fr. Weiss is still very much a part of our efforts here at Our Little Haven, serving not only on our board of directors and as our spiritual rudder but also as our reality check. He heads up, for example, our compensation committee, making sure that the salaries we offer allow our staff to take care of their families.

God has allowed us the opportunity to serve children like Jasmine and, equally important, to be served through leaders like Fr. Weiss. Every day we offer our thanks and abandon our efforts to God's grace and thank him for using us to celebrate the growth of a community that cherishes children.