DATE: October 21, 2003
TO: Board of Supervisors
SUBJECT: Exploring the Feasibility of Duplicating the Hope Meadows Intergenerational Program in San Diego County

SUMMARY
Approval of today’s recommendation will allow the County to explore the feasibility of duplicating the Hope Meadows intergenerational program in San Diego County.

RECOMMENDATION
Chairman Greg Cox and Vice Chairwoman Dianne Jacob:
Direct the Chief Administrative Officer to explore the feasibility of duplicating the Hope Meadows intergenerational program in San Diego County and report back to the Board within 180 days.

Fiscal Impact:
There are no fiscal impacts associated with this recommendation.

BACKGROUND
Hope Meadows is a geographically contained, intergenerational planned community on the former Chanute Air Force Base in Rantoul, Illinois. Hope Meadows addresses two of the most pressing social challenges facing communities today – foster care and senior housing – by offering a community where foster children and youth, adoptive families and seniors live together and support each other.

Hope Meadows is the first program and community of its kind in the U.S. It began in1993 with a vision by Brenda Krause Eheart, Ph.D. Seeing the need to provide a community of support specifically for adoptive families, Dr. Eheart founded Generations of Hope, the organization that eventually developed Hope Meadows. Hope Meadows includes, as a part of its design, an intergenerational component that allows seniors to become a part of, and provide support for the adoptive families in their community.

Hope Meadows provides on-site training, therapy and support for all children and families. Seniors have access to below market-rate rent in return for volunteer work with children and families. Hope Meadows currently houses 62 seniors, and 10 families raising 45 children, of whom 33 have been adopted. According to recent statistics, adoptive families stay an average of six years. Remarkably, Hope Meadows has maintained over a 90 percent success rate for adoption, guardianship or return to birth families over its 8 years of operation.

The Children’s Community Foundation is a local non-profit organization interested in assisting Generations of Hope in finding a new site to replicate the Hope Meadows program in order to benefit children, families and retirees in a second community. The Children’s Community Foundation has already begun conducting preliminary interviews with key individuals and organizations in the County to gauge the feasibility of bringing Hope Meadows to San Diego.

Approval of today’s recommendation will allow the Chief Administrative Officer and key stakeholders an opportunity to review this concept and explore the feasibility of replicating the Hope Meadows community in San Diego County. It is not anticipated that any County General Funds would be necessary to assist in this effort.
We urge your support!

Respectfully submitted,

GREG COX
Chairman

DIANNE JACOB
Vice Chairwoman