Treutlen House representatives are hoping spring will be bountiful for them, too.

April 25 will be Treutlen House Day across the county, with many area churches setting aside a special offering for the boys’ home.

“This is a great ministry that needs to be supported,” said Mose Mock, the chairman of the Treutlen House board of directors.

Currently, there are six boys residing at Treutlen House. The state is moving away from putting children in group home settings and is directing its emphasis toward foster home and other family members, Mock and Treutlen House Director Susan Gattman said.

More than 200 group homes in the state have closed in the last few years, according to Mock.

But if the tide turns back toward group home settings, Gattman cautioned, there won’t be such homes available to take in the children.
Treutlen House has an annual budget of around $100,000, Mock said, and much of that is tied up in labor costs, even if salaries are not extravagant.

No matter the number of boys calling Treutlen House home, it still has to have the same amount of staff, Gattman said.

“Even in the evenings, we need three people,” she said. “They have to have a certain amount of training.”

“When you have 24-hour care,” Mock said, “it adds up.”

The home faced a dire situation a year and a half ago after its funding from Morning Star Services was cut. An appeal to the community raised the money needed to keep the Treutlen House’s doors open.

Gattman said the best success stories from Treutlen House are from the boys who stay there three or four years. With nearly a dozen area ministers on hand Thursday, she called upon them to have men from the church also come out to the home.

“Many of the boys don’t have positive male role models,” she said.

Boys at the Treutlen House are in school throughout the day.

“This is a home,” Mock said. “It is not a facility.”