St. Clare's Homes for Children
In 1985, following the loss of a close friend to AIDS, Terry and Faye Zealand began to search for a way to honor their friend's memory. During a tour of United Hospital in Newark, Terry and Faye met an orphaned two-year old girl infected with HIV. The child was forced to remain in a hospital setting since there was no one yet identified and able to act as a foster parent. It was then that Terry and Faye focused their mission on helping homeless children with AIDS. In 1987, ARFC opened its first St. Clare's Home in Elizabeth, New Jersey and soon after opened two more homes in Jersey City and Neptune. Since 1987, the Homes have helped over 1,000 babies.
Today, ARFC's three St. Clare's Homes for Children offer transitional care for medically fragile babies and children who would otherwise be boarding in New Jersey's hospitals or living at risk in the community. The children are cared for in a loving home-like environment by trained health care workers. The primary goal of the program is to reunite the babies with their biological families. If this is not possible, the staff assists the Division of Youth and Family Services in placing these children in kinship or foster care homes with the goal of permanent placement.
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