Nov 24, 2009 6:41 pm US/Central
92 Percent Graduation Rate For Chicago Orphanage
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Chicago's Mercy Home for Boys and Girls boasts a 92 percent high school graduation rate, compared to 55 percent for Chicago Public Schools.
CBS
It's a stunning statistic. Almost half of Chicago Public High School students will never graduate. But it's an entirely different story at one Chicago orphanage where the graduation rate is almost 100 percent. CBS 2's Dana Kozlov reports on the secret of Mercy Home for Boys and Girls' success.
Josiah, 14, has big dreams.
"I want to go to Juilliard," he said.
He feels that's possible now that he's found stability and security living at Chicago's Mercy Home for Boys and Girls. But it was a rough road that included a slew of foster homes, and he says, emotional isolation, before arriving here.
"If I don't have anyone to talk to about my problems, I just hold it in and then I explode later," Josiah said. "That's why I've had a lot of anger issues. That's why I got kicked out of a couple schools."
Josiah fully expects to graduate from high school and with Mercy's track record, he should. A spokesperson says 92 percent of Mercy's residents graduated from high school last year, compared to Chicago Public Schools latest available rate of 55 percent.
So what, then, is Mercy Home doing right?
"I think, one, is creating that safe, consistent, predictable environment," said Thomas Gilardi, Mercy Home's Vice-President of Youth Programs. "I think the second thing is hope."
Gilardi says that's especially important considering most of Mercy's residents come from traumatic backgrounds.
Martha Randolph Carr, author of "A Place to Call Home", a book on this subject, says another important factor is treating the kids with respect.
Carr says anger management is key.
"It's actually the first thing that you need to deal with because it's the block between the child taking in any information," Carr said. "Because the child is waiting for you to prove what they believe to be true, which is that you are an angry adult."
Three years after settling in at Mercy, Josiah says it's working, at least for him.
"People support you here. I'm happy," Josiah said. "There's ups and downs still. Everyone goes through a little hell to get to heaven."
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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