Editor’s note: This story has been corrected.
Before Danielle Jones passed away in 2015 her dream was to help children in the foster care system make their way to permanent homes.
Jones was a CPS worker for Smith County who became inspired to join the field of social work by her aunt, Tammy Kegarise. Kegarise, who has been a foster parent for 19 years, made Jones aware of the foster care system by the many children that would come in and out of her home.
Faye Wardlaw, Jones’ mother and Kegarise’s sister, said that after Jones became familiar with the process she got personally invested and her dream soon grew to become a CPS worker when she was older. She told her daughter that while the idea was admirable, there was no money to be had as a social worker and that “she was ‘gonna be broke the rest of her life.”
Jones response? “Sometimes you have to do what you feel God is leading you to,” Wardlaw said her daughter told her.
Jones would go on to make a career as a CPS worker in Oklahoma before returning to Texas to work for Cherokee County and eventually Smith County. During her tenure, Jones often slept at the CPS office where she worked with children who didn’t have a permanent residence or family member to stay with.
Those nights of huddling on the floor with children who were afraid struck something in Jones and compelled her to take action. With the help of Kegarise, Jones formed a plan to open a shelter that would help children in emergency situations have a bed to sleep in. Danielle’s Home of Hope Children’s Emergency Shelter is the name she came up with and Jones quickly got to work sketching and formulating plans.
Before concrete plans could move forward, Jones was tragically killed in an ATV accident in 2015. Not only was her family devastated but the vision she had to help unplaced children eventually lost steam.
“At one point in time I didn’t think it was ever going to happen,” Wardlaw said.
A 2016 article in the Longview News-Journal covering children sleeping at CPS offices caught the sisters’ attention and soon after, they knew they had to act. This was the spark that Wardlaw and Kegarise needed to bring Danielle’s dream to life again, Wardlaw said.
“I felt it was the awakening to me to finish and fulfill the vision and dream,” Wardlaw said.
In trying to get the project off the ground, the sisters came across many obstacles with CPS, such as needing to have an administrator and other state regulations that they couldn’t handle as individuals, Wardlaw said. That’s where Hope Haven stepped in.
“They called me one day and said, ‘we’d like to talk about helping y’all continue this vision and getting this shelter open,” Wardlaw said.
With the help of Amber Stringer, program director at Hope Haven, licensing, contracting and other legal matters were handled and an emergency shelter known as Danielle’s Home of Hope is now set to open in the fall in Gladewater. The emergency shelter will have seven beds and is licensed to take in seven girls aged five to 17 who have recently been removed and placed into CPS custody, Stringer said. Girls who stay at the shelter will attend Gladewater ISD for their respective grade, she added.
Emergency shelters serve to give a temporary home to children who are either waiting for a kinship placement or a foster home or have had a disruption in their placement, Stringer said. According to her, the purpose of the shelter will be to offer a temporary placement stay for up to 90 days for children who CPS is not able to secure a more permanent placement setting for, such as a foster home or general residential operation (GRO).
“The state of Texas is in the greatest placement crisis that its ever seen,” Stringer said. “There is something now called CWP -c hild without placement — this shelter expansion is in an effort to meet the needs that are greater than they’ve ever been before.”
According to Stringer, Jones’ dream was the heart of the mission to get the shelter in place and operating. The shelter will be the only one in the region and is expected to be up and operating effective Oct. 3, she said. The shelter was set to have a state inspection and public hearing Thursday.
Staff is currently in the process of furnishing and stocking the home but Stringer said there is a great need not only for donations but volunteers.
“Our prayer is with new exposure in Gregg County that we’ll have new church partnerships, community and corporate financial support (and) donations of tangible items,” Stringer said. “We want volunteers- they’re ‘gonna be huge for this shelter just for recreational activities for the girls to get involved in, cooking classes, meal donations, movie nights and more.”
Hope Haven of East Texas staff will be managing the operations of Danielle’s Home of Hope.
“I am honestly honored to be part of it. I am just overwhelmed with joy to see her (Jones) vision be fulfilled…it’s going to make a difference in many kids lives. If we can be part of that and love on these kids and…just help them feel like they have a place and a home,” Wardlaw said.