By Thea Jarvis, Staff Writer

ATLANTA –Fully one-third of the budget for the archdiocesan-owned Village of Saint Joseph is met through special parish collections at Christmas and Easter. The balance of Village funds comes from tuition payments and the Village’s annual giving campaign held every fall.

“Our greatest support is through these second collection,” said Village director Charles Bright, Jr., who concedes that challenge.

The cost of housing, educating and counseling a Villager runs a hefty $2,500 per month, but a flexible payment arrangement is usually worked out based on a family’s financial situation. Intake and admission procedures include a financial analysis, which helps administrators determine an appropriate monthly payment schedule relative to full-cost tuition. Interest-free accrual of a portion of the balance is also available when a family’s finances dictate.

“We try very hard to stretch our financial boundaries,” Bright said, so children will receive what they need. The Village treatment program remains attractive, he pointed out, particularly because it includes a school, a full slate of services and trained, caring professionals.

“Money is not what attracts people who come here to work.” Motivation comes from “a sense of mission” to Village residents, which staffers particularly exemplify.

Such an attitude is consistent with the early history of the Village, which began as a boys’ orphanage run by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in Brunswick, Ga.

In 1876, the orphanage moved to Washington, Ga., where a rural setting and expanse of land awaited 50 boys and some 20 sisters then in residence.

Fire destroyed St. Joseph’s Home for Boys in 1897, but within six months a new building was constructed and occupied. In 1932, it was replaced by a two-story brick structure with chapel, classrooms, a dining room, library, kitchen and dormitories, accommodating 80 boys and a staff of sisters.

Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan moved the home to its present location in Atlanta in 1967, renaming it the Village of Saint Joseph. Over the years, the facility had become less an orphanage and more a facility for children experiencing social, emotional and academic difficulties.

IHM parishioner Gerry Deckbar, of Deckbar-McCormack, Architects, helped locate the new Village site, plan a campus layout and design the original buildings at a time when home-like cottages were replacing school-dormitory models in the child care field.

“We’re quite proud of (the Village) facility,” said Deckbar, who was encouraged by Archbishop Hallinan to “develop a homey, residential atmosphere for the children.”

When the Sisters of St. Joseph left the Village because of dwindling numbers and a desire to pursue other ministries in 1990, Charlie Bright, on staff as therapist since 1986, was appointed director. Bright supervised much-needed renovation and upgrading of campus buildings and grounds in time for the Village’s 25th anniversary in 1992 and has made innovative changes designed to enhance the mission begun by the sisters over a century ago.

“We can’t fix a kid or a family,” he said, “But we can offer them freedom, a respite from one another while they’re working things out.”

“The Village is the church’s only mission to problem children and their families,” said Bright. “It’s a true mission and one of which they can be enormously proud.”