By Angeles Ponpa
PEORIA, Ill. (25 News) – Construction is underway at the Children’s Home Association of Illinois to build transitional homes for youth aging out of foster care.
Two transitional homes, part of the organization’s Supervised Independent Living Program, are being built for 24 young adults who are transitioning out of the foster care system and are developmentally disabled. The goal of the program is to help the young adults develop skills to transition into adulthood and live independently.
Those who participate in the program are foster youth from Illinois, including the Peoria area. Once in the homes, they will have around-the-clock supervision, a case manager, and tools they need to secure and maintain a job, budget, meal plan, access public transportation, and learn about community engagement and resources.
Both homes will be co-ed, with 12 men and women in each, but with enough space for privacy for each person. Location of the homes will be behind the Children’s Home Association of Illinois’s main building on 2130 N. Knoxville Ave in Peoria. They are expected to be completed in spring of 2027.
“These young people need support,” said Scurry Miller, President and CEO of the Children’s Home Association of Illinois.
“The houses that we’re building are a place where they’ll have 24-hour supervision, they have job coaches, they work on their educational needs that they may have, future planning, life skills. If you can imagine being 18-years-old and not really knowing how to cook or care for yourself, these are skills that they learn in these supervised independent living homes.”
According to Miller, about 30% of children in foster care will experience homelessness during adulthood.
The initiative is part of a broader strategic vision to combat homelessness and help youth successfully transition to independent living.
“Every kid deserves to feel like they have a home, before they’re off on their own, and that’s my goal- to give those kids that home. Somewhere they feel like they belong, that they can take pride in and ownership in,” said Tim Van Autreve, Chief Operating Officer for Children’s Home Association of Illinois.
The organization currently works with local at-risk youth through providing support services. For its anniversary, they chose to invest in these transitional and independent homes for foster youth.
“It is the children’s home’s 160th birthday this year, and we are building what comes next,” said Van Autreve.
The concept for the Supervised Independent Living Program began in July 2024 and was approved by the City of Peoria in December 2024. Construction then began in Spring of 2026.
Success of the program will be measured by assessing the confident levels of each young adult who participates in the program.
According to the organization, each of the 24 young adults will be asked at the beginning to rank their level of confidence on being able to succeed independently. When they leave the program or age out at 24, they will be asked again individually to rank their confidence level on being able to be independent.
“Our goal [for] building these houses is to have an exceptional place for these youth to live,” said Miller.
“Many times, they’ve come from poor living conditions, and I’ve always been one that if a program or a building or a space is not a place that I would send my own kids, it’s not good enough. So, we plan to make this exceptional were- when a kid comes there, they feel honored, they feel cared for, they’re in a space that’s wonderful.”
Comments