MOOSEHEART, IL, April 14 -- As roughly 75 adults from 17 states and the District of Columbia gathered for the start of the 2010 Coalition For Residential Education (CORE) national conference, being co-hosted by Mooseheart Child City  & School and Glenwood School of St. Charles, it was appropriate that one of the first voices they heard from was that of a teenager.

Mooseheart senior Damion Moore welcomed those attending the conference as one who has benefited from his time in residential care -- and Moore has been in residential care at Mooseheart for a long time.

"I have been here for 12 years; I came here when I was six years old," Moore said. "When I came to Mooseheart, I didn't know what to expect. But Mooseheart's done so much to help me have a family environment."

Moore said he plans to attend college and to study medical nursing after he leaves Mooseheart in May.

"There's a lot of things I wouldn't be able to do if I wasn't here," Moore said. "I've seen so many different things and experienced a lot of things that inner-city kids don't get to experience. It's broadened my horizon."

CORE Founder and Executive Director Heidi Goldsmith emphasized that CORE is not at all anti-family -- a misconception that many have as the organization promotes the successes of residential care. But, she said, there need to be options because children may respond best in one setting but not another.

"What every child needs is what behaves like a family, not just what looks like a family," Goldsmith said. "When foster care works -- great. When adoption works -- great.  When (biological) family support works -- great.

"But we strongly believe this is another option, and part of what we are going to be doing is strengthening this option."

The importance of having a structure that behaves like a family was reinforced by the opening day's keynote speaker: Dr. Kathryn Whetten, who is the Director of the Center for Health Policy at Duke University's Global Health Institute. Whetten was the lead researcher on a recently-published study that focused on outcomes of residential programs in six countries: Cambodia, Ethiopia, India, Kenya and Tanzania.

Whetten's research team followed 3,000 orphans in those countries and the varied experiences they had whether placed in an orphanage or if they were returned to a setting with relatives. Whetten said her research indicates that children fare as well, and often better, when placed into an orphanage or other residential care facility than when returned to relatives.

"There's concern at the global level that maybe we have to have a residential care facility for a little while to take care of the child while we find the relatives - and then we'll shoot him back to any relative we can find because they're the ones who should be taking care of them," Whetten said.

The news of the Duke team's research has not been met kindly, whether from organizations which champion strong families or organizations such as UNICEF, the United Nations International Childrens Fund.

"This has caused great negative emotion among many people," Whetten said. "I've been in the academic world for quite a while. I started as a practitioner. What I, and the people I work with would like to do is to find out how to best provide care."

Whetten said she began her research thinking she would find that placing orphans with biological family members would be the best option. But she said that constant reworking of her team's data continued to return to the same conclusions. And she added that the realization needs to be met that residential care facilities have a place, and can provide quality care.

"What people need to understand is that this is the community response," Whetten said a medical researcher in Uganda told her.

"Mooseheart," Whetten continued, "it is the community response. You wouldn't be doing it if it weren't because the community felt there was a need to do it. Even in those cultures where kids are so highly valued that everyone is taking care of them, we're setting up residential settings that are not in someone's house."

But misconceptions cloud even the best people's thinking sometimes, she said.

"Policy-makers and people who are adamant, passionate people who love children have in their minds an image of what an institution is," Whetten said, who said that forbidding images of Victorian orphanages are no longer valid.

Whetten also echoed Goldsmith when she mentioned the need for alternatives in order to give a child the best setting to succeed.

"We need options," Whetten said. "There is a feeling that if there is a (biological) family, that kid should be with that family. When you look at settings here and in Europe, that is just not the case. Some parents don't love the kids or they can't take care of them or they don't want to take care of them. Or there are mental health issues or substance abuse issues that make that home not that home not a place for the kid to be."

Whetten had originally wanted to conduct her study in the U.S. Based on the findings of her global study and the backlash to her published data, she feels it is time to conduct a study in the U.S., possibly using the same methodology as her international study or perhaps with modifications.

"I actually didn't know of the residential facilities in the United States," Whetten said. "I knew there were a few but I didn't think there were many. It was really with the results of this study and the reaction to that in this country that I started realizing the magnitude of kids who are being cared for in residential facilities."

Whetten said she has become aware of the various residential facilities in the U.S., including the two co-hosts of this year's CORE conference--Mooseheart and Glenwood.

"I'm incredibly impressed," Whetten said. "Looking on the Web site for this organization and (Glenwood School), I am just amazed at what is happening here. Like the facilities that we are looking at internationally, what we find is that when people are against you, the people involved become completely committed. Their work is heartfelt and they know it's right. There's no other reason to be doing this kind of work."

The CORE conference continues Thursday at Mooseheart and concludes Friday at Glenwood, where the main speaker is Bryan H. Samuels, a Glenwood grad who was recently named the Commissioner of Children, Youth and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Mooseheart Child City & School is a 1,000-acre community and school for children and teens in need of a secure home, located just south of Batavia, IL, between Illinois Route 31 and Randall Road.

Founded in 1913, Mooseheart is supported completely through private donations - the great majority of which come from the 1.1 million men and women of the Moose fraternal organization, in approximately 1,800 Lodges and 1,600 Chapters located throughout the U.S., Canada, Great Britain and Bermuda. Moose International headquarters is located on the Mooseheart campus.

Since its founding, Mooseheart has operated a complete, accredited kindergarten-through-high-school academic program, plus art, music, vocational training and interscholastic sports. It is an extremely nurturing and student-tailored program, with an average student-teacher ratio of 12-1.

Mooseheart students who complete their studies with a 3.0 GPA or better (4.0=A) are eligible for up to five years of annually renewable scholarship funding, covering tuition, room and board in an amount comparable to that required for an in-state student at an Illinois public university.

Mooseheart is currently home to nearly 230 students, ranging in age from preschoolers to high school seniors. Applications for admission to Mooseheart are considered from any family whose children are, for whatever reason, lacking a stable home environment. Mooseheart boasts its own U.S. Post Office and a fully functioning branch of Fifth Third Bank.

In addition to Mooseheart, Moose International also supports Moosehaven, a 70-acre retirement community near Jacksonville, FL founded in 1922; and conducts more than $90 million worth of community service programs annually.

Founded in 1888, the Moose organization has long offered its members an opportunity to do good for others while celebrating life, with family, social, and sporting activities. For more information on the Moose organization, visit the websites at www.mooseintl.org , www.mooseheart.org, www.moosehaven.org, or call 630-966-2229.