By Roger Allen
Members of the Montezuma Lions Club learned details about the “Roots of Home” a local area mission program, during their March 27 meeting.
Guest speaker was Paige Wilson, who, along with her husband, Heath Wilson, are licensed foster parents and accredited missionaries who are the founders of “Roots of Home,” which has been in the developmental stage for a few years.
In March of 2022 it was more formally launched and in October 2022 a “Resource Center” was opened at 315 East Main St., which is on the north side of the Montezuma city square.
Roots of Home ministers to children and families within the foster care system in Iowa. The Roots of Home vision statement is “Planting Seeds of Hope, Growing Strong Families.”
“Everyone deserves a family, no matter their age,” said Paige, the former Paige Hoksbergen, a Montezuma-native and mother of six. “Sometimes, all it takes is for someone to come alongside a family and offer hope and show them a way to make a different choice.”
Roots of Home’s purpose is focused on prevention. The first goal is to prevent children from ever entering the foster care system by identifying and supporting vulnerable children in the community.
Secondly is a desire to prevent families currently in the foster care system from being separated permanently by providing a healing space for birth family visitations to take place. Also provided are necessary resources for birth families to make their homes a safe place independent from the “system.”
Now, and even more eventually, Roots of Home wants to prevent teenagers in foster care from entering the adult world alone and without support by providing a transition home and program for them to age out of foster care.
Roots of Home has purchased about seven acres of land where the organization hopes to build a permanent transition home.
“We want to provide them the stability of ‘home,’ and to help them begin a new legacy in their future families, ending generational cycles of foster care,” Wilson said.
The Main St. Resource Center has three areas. The front is an entrance space. The larger middle area has been carefully designed to feel comfortable, complete with a living room and a small kitchen.
Most children within the foster care system are required to have visits with their biological families during their time in care. Typically, they occur in public places like parks, public libraries, or restaurants. This area provides a place that feels more like a home.
“Public places are not very conducive to quality family meetings, especially when these families are working hard to rebuild broken relationships,” Wilson said. “We wanted a place where they could get down on the living room rug and play like they would at home; a place with age-appropriate toys and activities; and a table where they could decorate cookies or play games,” she added.
Roots of Home is growing a team of volunteers trained to host those families in the resource center to help those visits become successful.
The third area, in the back of the building is a resource room filled with clothing, shoes, baby items, and toys to give foster and kinship families when they receive new children in their home.
The space also has a room dedicated to “First-Night Backpacks.” These bags, which will include a new pair of pajamas, toiletry items, snacks, and a few activities, will be picked up by social workers and given to children upon first entering foster care.
Montezuma club to present its donation of $200 to Paige Wilson, at left, for Roots of Home of which she is a co-founder. The photo was taken on April 13 in the living room area of the “Roots” Resource Center. In March, Wilson was an invited guest speaker at a Lions club meeting, at which she mentioned the Center is wanting to obtain a microwave oven and a refrigerator for their functionality and to add to the center’s home-like atmosphere. According to Wilson, Roots of Home is a non-profit children and families mission focused on prevention, “Planting Seeds of Hope, Growing Strong Families.” (Photo courtesy of Roger Allen).
Roots of Home is a non-profit enterprise, funded by donations. Grants are being applied for.
Wilson said there are some furnishings, such as a refrigerator, that the Resource Center would welcome receiving. Paige Wilson may be contacted at 641-325-1650.
More information is available online at www.rootsofhome.org.
(Author’s note: Previous reporting by Derek Bates contributed to this article.)