Specific Goals, Concepts, and Outcomes:  The specific goals of HOD are to provide At-Risk Children with appropriate life skills training and a support network to insure they can manage the stress of everyday life and experience a successful integration with their families and society, engage in gainful employment, and avoid a life of crime.

HOD prepares young males and females (ages 6-18) in the Spartanburg and Cherokee Counties of Upstate South Carolina with the skills to become responsible adults in the future.  Services and training provided include counseling, mentoring, independent living skills, budgeting, education, employment, and access to other resources and agencies that are vital for their successful living in the community. HOD is already working with At Risk children, and is now focused on placing greater emphases on helping the children become and remain more stable in the home and in society through our capacity-building network.

These goals require that HOD empower At-Risk children with appropriate knowledge and skills to take them off the street and out of the vicious cycle of despair that often leads them to crime, drugs, and death.  Empowering these youth enables them to become taxpaying, productive citizens in the community.  This empowerment leads to reduced crime rates among the youth in the areas we serve.  Additional outcomes expected when HOD's goals are met include a reduction in domestic violence as youth are more respectful to their parents at home and hence get more respect in return. Spartanburg County has the highest rate of domestic violence in the state. We believe these goals and related outcomes are attainable because stress management and life skills training for the At-Risk children plus family reunification gives them a positive outlook on the future.