VOA标准英语10月-In Brenda Eheart's Model Community, Elders Suppor

Fourteen years ago, Brenda Eheart created a community founded on the idea that it takes a village to raise a child. Today that village, Hope Meadows, is thriving and serving as a model for other communities. VOA's Susan Logue reports.
　

Hope Meadows resembles many American suburban1 neighborhoods

The winding² street lined with mailboxes and houses with manicured lawns looks like many residential³ neighborhoods in the United States. But Hope Meadows is unique. The planned community has a special mission: to support families who adopt children who, Brenda Eheart says, might otherwise never have families of their own: "sibling⁴ groups, older children, children with a lot of emotional problems - those children would probably remain in the revolving⁵ door of foster care if it were not for this program."

Helping⁶ foster families

The foster care system provides temporary homes for children who have been orphaned⁷ or removed from their birth families. Brenda Krause Eheart designed Hope Meadows based on her research, which showed that permanent adoptions⁸ of these children - some of whom had been abused or neglected by their birth parents - often failed, and the children were returned to foster care.
　

Brenda Eheart (left) with children and a senior resident of Hope Meadows

"Our children have been in at least four different homes before they come to Hope Meadows, and some have been in seven and twelve homes," Eheart notes.

She believed that if families who adopted these children lived in a community together with specially⁹ trained counselors¹⁰ to assist them, the families would be better able to survive the challenges that faced them.

In 1994, Eheart was offered housing at a former military base to establish her planned community about 200 kilometers south of Chicago, in Rantoul, Illinois. But she was asked to fill more houses than she planned to.

Retirees key to success

That's when she decided¹¹ to bring retirees into the mix. Although it wasn't part of her original plan, Eheart says, "That idea of having the seniors there, giving them reduced rent in exchange for their providing service and support to the community, has really been the one thing that has made this community the success that it is. I do believe we would have closed within three years without them."

Instead, Hope Meadows and the 12 families who live there are thriving. There are even plans underway to replicate¹² the community elsewhere, thanks to a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

New communities following model

Eheart believes that within the next two years, other inter-generational communities "will be popping up all over the U.S.," and some, she adds, will be addressing other social concerns.

She has already begun work in other states with young mothers who have completed a drug treatment program. "If they can go to a community where they can get affordable¹³ housing, where they can have grandparents, where they can get support while they learn job skills, learn parenting skills, they can have support through these relationships as well as their children," Eheart explains.

Elsewhere in the U.S., she says she is working with young mothers who have been in prison. She is also considering programs to support young people who have been convicted of crimes themselves and are coming out of the juvenile¹⁴ justice system.

Eheart, 64, grew up on a small dairy farm in the Midwestern U.S. She says values she learned from her hard-working parents, as much as her research into foster care, were guiding forces that helped shape Hope Meadows.

"My parents certainly did not have much money," she recalls, "but in troubled times my parents were always there, and my parents always sacrificed for the children."

Although her parents hadn't gone to college, she says they made sure all the children did. "And when I see children in a situation where they don't have that kind of caring adult in their lives, I almost have a visceral reaction to it."
　

Seniors and children play Bingo or other games after school at Hope Meadow's Inter- generational Center

The 50 children who live in Hope Meadows - biological, adopted and foster - have not only supportive parents, but also a whole community looking out for them, including approximately 60 seniors.

Children help elderly neighbors

Eheart says the children have become caring individuals in return, caring for their elderly neighbors: "stopping by to make sure they are okay, calling them to make sure they are okay, bringing in their paper so they don't have to get up out of their chair, walking their dog for them day and night, [doing] all kinds of everyday things that would be difficult for the older adults."

Regardless of how old or how young we may be, we all want to be needed, says Brenda Eheart. At Hope Meadows, everyone is. It is a community of caring individuals on all levels.

"In some ways this is such common sense, and in some ways it's the way we would like to think this country could be," Eheart says. With Brenda Eheart's guidance it is becoming that way, one community at a time.

Her work was recently honored once again, this time with a $250,000 private award from the Heinz Family Foundation.

1 suburban   

adj.城郊的，在郊区的

参考例句：

• Suburban shopping centers were springing up all over America. 效区的商业中心在美国如雨后春笋般地兴起。
• There's a lot of good things about suburban living.郊区生活是有许多优点。

2 winding   

n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈

参考例句：

• A winding lane led down towards the river.一条弯弯曲曲的小路通向河边。
• The winding trail caused us to lose our orientation.迂回曲折的小道使我们迷失了方向。

3 residential   

adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的

参考例句：

• The mayor inspected the residential section of the city.市长视察了该市的住宅区。
• The residential blocks were integrated with the rest of the college.住宿区与学院其他部分结合在了一起。

4 sibling   

n.同胞手足(指兄、弟、姐或妹)

参考例句：

• Many of us hate living in the shadows of a more successful sibling.我们很多人都讨厌活在更为成功的手足的阴影下。
• Sibling ravalry has been common in this family.这个家里，兄弟姊妹之间的矛盾很平常。

5 revolving   

adj.旋转的，轮转式的；循环的v.（使）旋转( revolve的现在分词 )；细想

参考例句：

• The theatre has a revolving stage. 剧院有一个旋转舞台。
• The company became a revolving-door workplace. 这家公司成了工作的中转站。

6 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

7 orphaned   

[计][修]孤立

参考例句：

• Orphaned children were consigned to institutions. 孤儿都打发到了福利院。
• He was orphaned at an early age. 他幼年时便成了孤儿。

8 adoptions   

n.采用，收养( adoption的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Adoption agencies are always so open to alternative family adoptions. 领养中介机构永远都对领养家庭敞开。 来自电影对白
• The number of adoptions has grown in the past year. 去年，收养子女的数字增加了。 来自互联网

9 specially   

adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地

参考例句：

• They are specially packaged so that they stack easily.它们经过特别包装以便于堆放。
• The machine was designed specially for demolishing old buildings.这种机器是专为拆毁旧楼房而设计的。

10 counselors   

n.顾问( counselor的名词复数 )；律师；（使馆等的）参赞；（协助学生解决问题的）指导老师

参考例句：

• Counselors began an inquiry into industrial needs. 顾问们开始调查工业方面的需要。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• We have experienced counselors available day and night. ) 这里有经验的法律顾问全天候值班。） 来自超越目标英语 第4册

11 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

12 replicate   

v.折叠，复制，模写；n.同样的样品；adj.转折的

参考例句：

• The DNA of chromatin must replicate before cell division.染色质DNA在细胞分裂之前必须复制。
• It is also easy to replicate,as the next subsection explains.就像下一个小节详细说明的那样，它还可以被轻易的复制。

13 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

14 juvenile   

n.青少年，少年读物；adj.青少年的，幼稚的

参考例句：

• For a grown man he acted in a very juvenile manner.身为成年人，他的行为举止显得十分幼稚。
• Juvenile crime is increasing at a terrifying rate.青少年犯罪正在以惊人的速度增长。