Foster Home Care or Orphanages?

Framing The Debate

Does she "walk through walls" as the writer of a recent New York Times Magazine article suggests, or simply mow people down? The self-acclaimed saint wannabe who is generating so much controversy is Mary Jo Copeland, founder of Sharing and Caring Hands, the Minnesota charity she established almost twenty years ago to help the poor and homeless. Pass-the-plate contributors to her cause as well as large players like Bob Ulrich, C.E.O. of Target Stores which has donated $1.5million to her cause, might argue that Mary Jo not only walks through walls, but perhaps on water as well.

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Driven by intense religious convictions and an uncanny sense of story and theater, Copeland has mounted a fervent drive to build an orphanage and save lives---and perhaps some souls---of children in foster care along the way. But while she has finally won over the town council of Eagan, Minnesota, just outside of St. Paul, her battle has not been as an easy one.

Her opponents, including award-winning journalist Richard Wexler of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform in Alexandria, Virginia, The Child Welfare League of America, and the North American Council on Adoptable Children (NACAC) cringe as Mary Jo cuts a wide swath through current research and practice on how best to meet the needs of children in need of help.

But why? The debate over institutional care is not new. An off-hand comment made ten years ago by former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich rocketed through the media and quickly had people lined up on both sides of the issue. Now it's Mary Jo Copeland's turn. Another line has been drawn in the sand. Fostering Families TODAY highlights key points in "The Great Orphanage Debate."