St. Mary's Home helps children thrive and reach fullest potential

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) – For 80 years, St. Mary’s Home in Norfolk has supported children and young adults from across the Commonwealth.

This week’s Community Chat featured St. Mary’s Home, with President of the Auxiliary Board Dodie McGuire and Communications Specialist Abby Gray speaking to Digital Host Sarah Goode about the organization and their upcoming events. Watch the Community Chat in the video player on this page.

St. Mary’s Home provides medical, therapeutic, educational and recreational services to youth severe intellectual and physical disabilities. They have about 100 individuals from newborn to adulthood living at the home.

For residents, they receive long-term care. Gray said the average length of stay is about seven years.

“We just want to keep focusing on providing amazing care and [help] these individuals live a good life and just really reach their fullest potential,” Gray said.

St. Mary’s Home tries to provide everything the young people need to live their fullest lives. Within their various services, they focus on each resident, from providing custom meal plans to around-the-clock medical care.

“I think one of the most exciting things we do is we have a transportation team that will take these individuals on some amazing field trips,” Gray said.

Last year, trips included a Nationals game, iFly, parks, museums and the Sandler Center.

“We really want to give these kids a well-rounded childhood because this is their home,” Gray said.

One of the sayings at the home is “the individuals are the program.” Each resident at St. Mary’s Home has different needs. The staff comes together to work on individualized programs for each resident to help them achieve goals their families or individuals set for themselves.

At St. Mary’s Home, they want families to be as involved as possible. It is a partnership between the home and families.

“They are so grateful that there is a place that their children can go to and be cared for at this level,” McGuire said, “because it is a high-level of care that’s necessary to take care of our family in the home, truly.”

Families are grateful to find a place that can take of their family-members as they would have wanted to be able to take care of them, something possible with the pooling of equipment, resources and services at the home.

Donations are necessary for the home who relies on a combination of Medicaid, additional funding from United Way, grants, individual, corporate and municipal donations and St. Mary’s Foundation.

“We couldn’t do these amazing things that we’re able to do without the support of our community,” Gray said.

McGuire has been on the Auxiliary Board for about five years. The board members have three areas of focus: volunteering with the home, community outreach and fundraising.

“Some people who have sat on the board have children that live at the home, and young adults,” McGuire said. “Other people are community partners, to really get more involved in steering, helping out with our mission and steering where we go in the future.”

As a mother to a son on the spectrum, she has done a lot of community service work for support the special needs community. Her work with St. Mary’s began after sitting in a board meeting and visiting the home.

“When I got into the home it was like a whole different world,” McGuire said. “It truly is a home. And, it’s one of the brightest, happiest places that I’ve ever really been involved with.”

As a member of the auxiliary board, her first goal is to educate people to really understand what the home is like. She encourages people to take a tour and see it from their own eyes, just like she did.

That message continues with the staff, who want to be there.

“And then, everyone you meet in the building, no matter what their role is … friendly and they bring in the atmosphere of truly being at home,” McGuire said.

St. Mary’s Home has a wait list at all times. There are very few places like St. Mary’s Home across the country.

“What we do is very specialized, and so we’re always trying to get the word out to other families in Virginia, northern parts of the state, western parts of the state that are services are available and we are here to help,” Gray said.

Find out more about the non-profit, ways to get involved or receive support by visiting, saintmaryshome.org.

February Events

Events help the home reach out to the community for support, but also reach families who may need their services.

Here are two upcoming events at Elation Brewing, below.

FUNDraiser for St. Mary’s Home

When: From 2 until 6 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 4
Where: Elation Brewing, 5104 Colley Ave.
What: Enjoy craft brews and pizza at Elation Brewing to raise funds for residents at St. Mary’s Home. Buy tickets to the raffle and enjoy prizes. Funds will go towards transportation, group outings and more.

Elated Market

When: From 1 until 5 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 18.
Where: Elation Brewing, 5104 Colley Ave.
What: Support St. Mary’s Home at the Elated Market. When you order a Good Life Lager, for every pint sold, a dollar will be donated. Find out more about the organization at the vendor market.