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Published: January 06, 2010
By Melody Kinser
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With shovels making their way into the cold earth on Sunday, ground was broken on Heart Havens’ latest residential facility for adults with intellectual disabilities.

Working with the Hanover County Community Services Board, Heart Havens is building on a five-bedroom house on property provided by the Hanover County Board of Supervisors near the Union Baptist Church on North Snead Street in Ashland.

Bob Tate, who serves on the Board of Directors for Heart Havens, said the land had been allocated by county leaders for that use a few years ago. He also said Heart Havens received the land at no cost from the county.

The house will be built to occupy 2,824 square feet on what Tate said was a vacant lot the county “designated some years back for mental health purposes.”

Tate’s role in helping acquire the land for Heart Havens started during a conversation with Lori Ann Booker, who works with the CSB. She then arranged for Tate to talk with Wanda Martin, the CSB residential services manager, about the project. “And it just worked out over a period of about a year and a half,” he said.

Now that dirt has been moved in a ceremonial fashion, Heart Havens is getting to work on constructing the house. “We hope to be operational by summertime,” Tate said.

Among those participating in Sunday’s ground-breaking ceremony were Bishop Charlene Kammerer and Mark Ogren, the Ashland District superintendent of the Methodist Church.

Looking back on how the dream of establishing a Heart Havens location in Hanover County became a reality, Tate said he made the suggestion in April 2004 during a meeting of the Methodist Men’s Group at Enon United Methodist Church. He said he told the group that “we needed to have a Heart Havens home in the Mechanicsville area.

“Really, my initial idea was this was going to be piece of cake — all we needed was about $300,000; we actually needed more than that.” He turned to the Methodist Churches in the Mechanicsville area – Shady Grove, Lebanon, Enon and New Son – for financial assistance. Also aiding the project have been members of Wright’s Chapel in Carmel Church, as have the Ashland District United Methodist Men.

To raise money for Heart Havens, Enon has sponsored steak dinners, golf tournaments, yard says, “anything that you can do to raise a few bucks.”

“The major thing that we latched onto where we got most of our help from Shady Grove and Lebanon,” Tate said, is “a concession stand at the Siegel Center at VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University) and we get a commission on what we sell down there.” He said the have probably netted $100,000 from selling hot dogs and popcorn over the course of five years.

Fundraising efforts have paid off significantly for the Mechanicsville project of Heart Havens. “We have raised on our own efforts about $180,000 over a five-year period. We’ve also gotten $60,000 in grants from two foundations, so we have $240,000 in our bank account now, which will be more than enough to build the home and I hope will be enough in there to furnish the home and make the downpayment on a van of some kind,” Tate said. He is quick to acknowledge the county’s role in making the home a reality.

Residents of Heart Havens facilities are provided with a home most don’t want to leave. Tate did say they must be 18 years or older and some residents are employed.

Hanover County residents receive primary consideration when applying for occupancy, but, Tate said, if the Hanover CSB cannot provide qualified residents, “then we’re allowed to go outside Hanover County to get additional residents.” He also said the county has residents with needs that Heart Havens is not licensed to care for, including wheelchair-bound and behavioral problems.

The need exists in Hanover County, Tate said, with 40 to 41 people having been identified as being in urgent need of this kind of care.

Heart Havens provides a Christian atmosphere, with supervisors that spend time with them. Tate said they have “an action plan for each resident to get them to develop to the best that we can —something that’s meaningful for them.” For example, a resident in another location has the goal of writing his own checks. “Anything that we can individualize that makes life more meaningful for them.”

The Union Baptist Church, Tate said, has already proven to be a good neighbor to Heart Havens. The minister, W. Darrell Leftwich, has expressed an interest in the project, which Heart Havens supports. “We encourage a relationship or we try to get a church to adopt the home — adopt in the sense that we will establish a working relationship, invite them to dinners, to services. We hope interest they’ve expressed will develop into something like that.”

In addition to the van Tate is pursuing, Heart Havens needs groups to adopt a room for furniture purposes. Three of the five bedrooms and a family room have already been adopted.

The kitchen, two bedrooms and a porch need assistance. Tate said he has been visiting civic organizations to get them interested in adopting a room. He said the Studley Ruritan Club had adopted a bedroom.

When the doors open at Heart Havens in Ashland, a main supervisor and two staffers will be working in three eight-hour around-the-clock shifts. Two other employees will help with meal preparation and the general running of the household. Tate said there is one primary supervisor and she/he may have more than one home to supervise.

“We work very close with the Community Services Board in each location where there is a home because they’re a key factor in determining where the Medicare waiver funds go,” Tate said. “That’s a lifetime grant from the state for their upkeep and care. Once that waiver is granted, it’s for a lifetime.”

On Monday, Pat Maher assumed the position of director of development for Heart Havens. Tate said she will be responsible “to give us some direction and guidance in our fundraising and development efforts.” She brings 14 years of experience to that type of work, having previously handled similar tasks with the American Cancer Society. “I think she will add a lot to our organization,” Tate added.

When Heart Havens organized in the early 1990s, financial support came from the Virginia Methodist Conference, but that changed when it came a standalone 501(c)3 nonprofit.
Now, Tate said, there is no guaranteed financial support from the church, but a strong emotional tie remains “because they gave birth to Heart Havens.”

He became involved with Heart Havens around the time of his daughter Bonnie’s death.

“I lived over in Henrico County for most of my life and when we moved to Hanover in 1989 we looked for a new church and I wound up going to Enon United Methodist Church. Art Wolz was the pastor.

“Art was asked by the Methodist Church to leave the pulpit ministry and start Heart Havens. The Methodist Church Virginia Conference saw a need in the mental health field because of some state actions,” Tate said. “Art started from scratch. We formed VUMAR (Virginia United Methodist Agency on the Retarded).” The word retarded was eliminated and Heart Havens was born in 1997.

Tate’s daughter was a cancer victim and “Art was so great to her in the last months of her life that made her final days a lot easier for her. And when he was asked to leave the pulpit and start what became Heart Havens he asked me to help him with fundraising and I couldn’t tell him no.”

“Bonnie was a sociology major and she would have been completely in tune with Heart Havens,” Tate said.

Although his daughter had no connection with the mental health field – she mostly worked with the battered women’s program at VCU – “she just had a sympathy for every lost puppy and every lost individual.”

Tate, who lost his daughter in 1991, said “She was kind of the glue that held us all together (there were four other children). I felt I owed Art something because of what he meant to her and I got involved.”

Part of the work Bob and his wife Janice perform for Heart Havens involves fundraising around the state.

Heart Havens started with its first home in Virginia Beach in 1997. Eleven homes now operate.

The organization’s role in a community is positive, Tate said. “They’re wonderful neighbors.”

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