Heritage Children
Created in May 2003, Heritage Children is a 501(c) 3 non profit organization, founded by Bobbi Kloss (a sole parent) out of (1) her own recovery from a lifestyle of the effects of childhood abuse and subsequent desire to be an encouraging role model for teens and (2) her personal need for a mentor for her then 11 year old son. As a mentor for teenagers in crisis pregnancy situations and teenage parents and from her personal life experiences she was seeing the chaos, confusion and lack of direction in the youth that was being created through the breakdown of the family unit. Many of the youth she was working with came from broken homes and they did not have the positive parental guidance that is found in traditional family lifestyles.
Since 2003, Heritage Children has promoted positive youth behavior through role modeling values including love, grace, mercy, compassion, accountability, no condemnation or pressure, teaching, and traditional family values and lifestyle. These values are important now more than ever as the number of youth in foster care has increased by 60% percent since Heritage Children began. The number of single parent families has continued to average 50% of the family population with every 2 out of 3 of those families having minor children and in over 75% of these cases either have an absent mother or father.
So, what does all these statistics exactly mean? That means that these kids are coming out of these broken families in an overwhelming majority without either a loving mother or father or both. What are they are left with is the brokenness of the family, the lack of moral and spiritual guidance and the skills necessary to function as productive adults.
Heritage Children is the program to fill that void of instilling a social and moral value system and providing youth coaching and mentoring services for children, youth and young adults ages 6 ‚? 21 from single parent families through divorce, death or abandonment, foster care homes where they have been removed due to abuse and/or neglect, and youth whose parents are incarcerated and those young adults transitioning from foster care into independent living
Heritage Children is a Christ-centered youth development organization whose mission is Transforming Lives Today for Tomorrow’s Purpose.
The vision of Heritage Children is for at-risk youth to develop the necessary life skills for leading productive adult lives:
Healthy self identity Positive self image
Focused self discipline Respect for authority
Regard for their environment Commitment to truth
Practical stewardship Strong work ethic
Our mission is carried out through coaching with proactive and interactive youth programs based upon a combination of mentoring traditional family values and the following character development and life skill programs:
Identity and Purpose
Money Management
Establishing Goals
Career planning
Reaching Your Goals
Giving Back to Your Community
Effective Communication Skills
Appropriate Media & Internet Usage
Healthy Image, Healthy Body
Building Organizational Skills
Heritage Children is built upon the love of God and His command that we be ‚"witnesses to Him in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and ‚"Samaria and to the end of the earth ‚" (Acts 1:8).
We believe that children are a heritage from the Lord and that He specifically calls us to be witnesses and gather up His children in order to release them into the world (Psalm 127: 3-4).
We believe in God, the Father, creator of Heaven and Earth and of things seen and unseen (Gen. 1:27)
We believe in Jesus Christ Son of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit born of the virgin Mary. (Luke 1:35)
We believe that Jesus was crucified, died (Matt 27: 50) and was buried for remission of our sins (Luke 24:46-47) and on the 3rd day rose from the dead (Matt 28:6). We believe He ascended into heaven (Acts 1:9) and is seated at the right hand of the Father (Acts 2:33) and will return to judge the living and the dead. (2 Ti 4:1)
We believe in the Holy Spirit, revealer of Truth (John 16:13)
We believe that we are all born into sin and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) and that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). We believe that Jesus who knew no sin was made to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor.5:21)
We believe that acceptance of Jesus, forgiveness of sins is the only way to the Father. (John 3:16)
We believe in life everlasting (John 6:39-40)
We believe in the holy church of Christ, which is the body of Christ, equipped by the Holy Spirit (1Cor 12:12) to bring good works.
As we move forward to work with the Church bodies in the equipment of saints to mentor the youth in the ways of the Lord, we do say claiming only the Word of God and the basic truths as revealed to us in His Word, through the holy bible which is the inspired word of God (2 Tim 3:16). We will respect the foundational traditions of the Christian denominations while claiming Christ, our hope.
