Finding hope: How a nonprofit helped a teen prevail through foster care and beyond

BOCA RATON — Dillon Green calls himself an “open book.”

Green’s book is one about breaking from the foster care system, graduating from college and, eventually, working in the field of exercise.

Green is 24. Today, he is a practitioner at Stretch Zone. During his free time, he likes to box. A poster of Muhammad Ali hangs above his bed.

But it wasn’t always this way — there was a time when Green didn’t even have a bed to call his own. It’s how he ended up at Place of Hope, the faith-based nonprofit that still houses him and that will soon expand in Boca Raton.

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Problems at home led state to place him in foster care

Green started at the organization’s Seven Stars Cottage in Palm Beach Gardens, where boys ages 5-17 are placed when the state removes them from their homes. He was a freshman in high school who had spent the past three years overhearing his parents’ arguments about finances and watching as they struggled with addiction to pills and alcohol.

Until he was 10, Green said, he grew up in a middle class home. He lived in West Palm Beach, his folks were his mom and his stepdad, and he had no siblings. “I love you” was said every night.

Then things went downhill. HIs parents lost the house.

“Middle school was almost kind of a blur to me,” Green said. “There was no real thought of the future. No idea of how things could be consistent, or ‘Where does this end?’ or anything.”

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Then Green was placed in the care of a woman who was working toward a therapy license.

“She kind of saw me as a bit of a paycheck each month,” Green said.

He said his room didn’t have working electricity. But he also didn’t really know what he was supposed to expect.

Counseling, life skills came at Place of Hope residence

His stay lasted about six months before he was moved to Seven Stars Cottage, the Place of Hope shelter. He was there for two months before being moved to a longer-term cottage, also provided by the organization.

It was more than just housing. Place of Hope provided services like counseling, therapy, tutoring and training for other life skills, like financial literacy once Green got older.

And it’s a core concept of Place of Hope — the "hand-up” model.

“Public housing should be short-term,” said Charles Bender, the founding CEO of the organization, which is headquartered in Palm Beach Gardens. “Because if you light a fire with people, they are going to want to be successful.”

Green is a prime example.

After finishing high school living at Place of Hope, he enrolled at Florida Atlantic University, where he studied exercise science. His house parents and other staff members from the organization helped him move into the school’s dorms. But during his third year, the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Green had been living with friends, all of whom had a place to go when classes became virtual. He didn’t.

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He’d been biking around town and checking Craigslist for options when he heard about Place of Hope’s newest building at the time in Boca Raton — the Gary Peters Complex along Boca Rio Road.

Similar to the organization’s other transitional housing programs, this complex was made for aged-out foster youth, single mothers with their children and otherwise homeless young adults.

Green became its first resident. It’s where he lives today with a roommate. And since its opening in 2020, it has served 21 young adults.

“It almost seemed like it was not real,” Green said. “The first week I was in here, it was just a dream.”

Boca complex helps those who age out of foster care

The complex Green lives in has eight residences and 16 beds. In the next year, the first of three more buildings like it will be added to the Boca Raton campus west of the city on Boca Rio Road. Construction of all three will more than triple the number of residents like Green.

Bender expects to receive permits for the building from the county within the next seven weeks. After that, it’ll take about eight months to build, he said. It will be called the Schmitt Family Housing Complex, after Dru and Debbie Schmitt of Boca Raton.

Also being added on this campus are two homes for single mothers and mothers-to-be. Currently, there are two of these pastel cottages. They’ll be transformed into duplexes, thanks to a $1 million donation from Mark and Sharon Warren of Boca Raton.

To the north, in Stuart, work is underway for Place of Hope’s new Treasure Coast Campus. Once complete, it will host more than 64 beds across 11 acres off Southeast Cove Road.

“Nobody else is doing what we're doing,” Bender said.

Apart from the “hand-up” model, he was referring to the organization taking in the large sibling groups others can’t and raising all the money necessary before beginning construction on new projects. This way, the organization is not left in debt.

“Everybody needs support,” said Bender, who has been doing this work for 24 years. “Nobody's gotten to high levels without somebody helping lift them up.”

Green, sitting beside him, nodded in agreement. He doesn’t plan on stopping at his bachelor’s degree.

A few weeks ago, he began training with the National Academy of Sports Medicine. Soon, he’ll be a certified personal trainer.

Jasmine Fernández is a journalist covering Delray Beach and Boca Raton at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at jfernandez@pbpost.com and follow her on Twitter at @jasminefernandz. Help support our work. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Place of Hope plans residences for homeless young adults in Boca Raton