Despite being twice denied a state license to run a child-welfare group home, the Giving Tree accepts children without a parent or guardian at its midtown Grace Home shelter, say 12 former Giving Tree clients, workers and supporters - and even the Giving Tree's own fundraising materials.
The Giving Tree was turned down in 2004 and again in 2006 for a state license required to care for children who are not in the custody of a parent or guardian.
The 2004 denial notice says Giving Tree Director Libby Wright's name had been placed in a registry kept by the state Department of Economic Security and Child Protective Services listing "substantiated reports of child abuse and neglect." It says Wright was put in the registry, which is used for caregiver background checks, for "failure to provide adequate medical care" or ensure the child-care staff was qualified.
"In addition, Pima County Superior Court has made findings of your physical and medical neglect of children in your care and custody in two separate dependency actions," the notice says.
The 2006 denial says multiple inspections of the five-bedroom Grace Home found an unsafe backyard play area that was littered with equipment and broken and unused objects, along with a shed that had no doors and contained "tools, paint and other dangerous items."
Inside the home, inspectors found food that had expired or was stored in unsanitary containers; overcrowded conditions; unsecured razors, birth-control pills and other pharmaceuticals; and other sanitation and safety concerns.
After the denials, Department of Economic Security spokesman Steve Meissner said the organization amended its policy to require that a parent or guardian be at Grace Home with the children, which eliminates the need to be licensed as a child-welfare group home.
Because Grace Home does not have that license, Meissner said, it should not be caring for unaccompanied children, and the state should be notified if there is reason to believe it is doing so.
Wright, the Giving Tree's founder and director, would not be interviewed for this story. However, in a YouTube video posted online last year promoting Giving Tree programs, Wright said, "The Grace Home is meant for children who are voluntarily placed, so we do not go through the court system."
She continued: "Nor do we have to do a lot of paperwork and go through a lot of red tape to be able to get a child. From a vehicle into the Grace Home, usually it happens within an hour."
Similarly, a fundraising brochure distributed this year says that "children are placed voluntarily or are accompanied by a parent or other relative" at the Grace Home.
Sally Hueston, who spent a year off and on as a resident and later as a "house parent" at the Grace Home, said she dealt with numerous children who stayed for weeks or months at the shelter without a parent or guardian. They were cared for by house parents, volunteers and other adults living there, she said.
A.J. Peters, a supervisor at the Giving Tree gift shop who regularly visited the organization's operations, including the Grace Home, said the same thing.
And Tara Drew, who lived at the Grace Home for two months last winter, said one of the other residents at that time was an underage girl.
Former Grace Home resident Sonja Corso said she was expelled after a falling out over Corso having her child support from Alaska sent through DES instead of directly to her at Grace Home. However, she said Wright told her to leave her children at the home, telling her she was a bad mother.
She said Wright said she would tell Child Protective Services that Corso falsified financial-aid documents - which she admits doing - and was on drugs - which she denies - if she complained about the kids being at the Grace Home without her.
She said her children lived there without her for more than four months, and she was allowed to see them for a few hours only on Thanksgiving, Christmas and her son's birthday in February.
She said she could have taken her children from the home, but she didn't feel comfortable doing so because she was afraid of being reported and of Wright testifying against her in a custody dispute.
Tom Hill, pastor of the WORKship Methodist Church and a former Giving Tree supporter, said he went to the Grace Home several times to do work projects. He said there were often six, seven or eight kids living at the home without parents or guardians.
They often participated in Hill's program to take foster children to the movies, he said. Wright played up the fact that unaccompanied kids lived there, Hill said, saying they had been "rescued."
One reason the Giving Tree was denied a group-home license, said Meissner of the Department of Economic Security, was its repeated refusal to follow guidelines.
"They just don't play by the rules," he said. "They do things their own way."
