Press and Praise

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STARNEWS ARTICLE: Yahweh Center gives traumatized children hope

By Ginny Tyson,
Star-News Intern

Online at: http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20080128/NEWS/801280383/1004
This is a corrected version. The original story incorrectly identified where the money comes from.
A tall, white gate next to a sign reading “Lamb’s Path Way” greets visitors.


It feels more like entering Landfall than entering a home for some of North Carolina’s most traumatized children. Inside the gates of the facility in New Hanover County are white picket fences, swing sets and pastel-colored cottages with more bikes than cars.


This is the Yahweh Center - a psychiatric residential treatment facility for children 5 to 12 years old. The center, started by Carla J. Roberts 20 years ago, brings together children from Asheville to the Outer Banks who suffered abuse, neglect, abandonment and even sexual molestation in the past.

“There is an overwhelming need for these kind of services in North Carolina,” said Roberts, the executive director. “The resources are not out there right now in this state to meet the needs of these children.”

The Yahweh Center is the only agency in North Carolina east of Charlotte to offer residential psychiatric treatment for children, child placing services in foster care and adoption, psychiatric services on site, day treatment services and outpatient child psychiatric services. With staff ranging from full-time resident nurses to licensed clinical social workers, the center focuses on prayer as its foundation for treatment.


“For every two children, one staff works all around the clock,” Roberts said.

Currently, 21 children live in the cottages on the 14-acre campus and the waiting lists are five children long for most of the services offered.

“As soon as you drive into the place, it just feels special,” said Douglas A. Waldrep, the center’s medical director.

The campus includes a playground, gardens and residence buildings, and there are plans for a chapel and an activity barn. While the agency relies on Medicaid to offset 60 percent of its operating cost, the remaining 40 percent is donor based. More than $1 million must be raised annually to support the children.

One case involves a 10-year-old boy who witnessed the murders of family members by other family members. The boy lived in cars and on the streets and can describe how to make methamphetamine because of time spent with family members who made the drugs in his bedroom.

Although the stories vary, the needs of the children remain the same. “These children need strong adoptive families,” Roberts said.

The center needs volunteers and has seen its share of celebrities. Singer and songwriter Pat Boone acted as the keynote speaker for an event in October 2006 and spent a day with the children, and Kermit the Frog was the master of ceremonies at an event in 1999. Local volunteers have helped mentor children, landscape the grounds and donated operating funds.

“Every other job is just a job,” Waldrep said. “This had a lot more meaning to it.”

The center’s third annual blue ribbon banquet is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday (January 29, 2008) at the Wilmington Hilton Riverside. Michael Reagan, author, radio talk show host and President Ronald Reagan’s eldest son, will speak at the celebration.