SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP, Ohio — A group home designed to help boys and young men work through trauma opened in Finneytown on Saturday.
Arieanna Richardson-Hill, the founder of the nonprofit Divine 180 Residential Services, hopes the new home can be a place of serenity and peace.
The home, called the Divine 180 Boys Home, is meant for people ages 10-21, with a focus on boys and men who have experienced homelessness, neglect or sexual or physical abuse.
Richardson-Hill said she worked in group homes before where the kids leave because they are bored.
"A lot of the kids will go AWOL because they will lose interest in being in the home all day,” she said.
That's why the plan for the new group home is to have plenty of indoor and outdoor activities.
"A hockey table, flatscreen TVs, board games ... a punching bag downstairs," Richardson-Hill said.
There are even dirt bike trails in the backyard.
"Our goal is to really set it up in a way that the boys won't want to leave the home,” she said.
Treatment services and therapy will also be available to those who wish to have it.
“I can't help everybody," Richardson-Hill said. "But what I can do is put in the effort to make the change for myself. And even if that's just starting with one young man.”
If you would like to support the home, you can click here.
