Advancing the Kingdom

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Advancing T he Kingdom: Kingdom House 112
games for small children in the evening.
I hired Pam Talley in the early eighties
as a full time youth worker because she was
a nurse that wanted to do community and
youth work. We were looking for a discipline
to supplement the traditional MSW
approach. She did a great job, was a RN
instead of a social work back ground. She
has gone on to complete a graduate degree
and become a licensed drugs counselor
working in community work here in St.
Louis.8
Although Kingdom House had had
organized team sports throughout the
years, nothing was in place when Gene
arrived. It was not until the late 1980s,
when Antwine Rook came to Kingdom
House, that team sports were again part
of active programming.
Gene reflects, “As I remember, the
really hard parts of my early years
(1979-1981) had to do with inflation.”
Between 1978 to 1980 figures nearly
doubled. Americans, disenchanted with
skyrocketing prices, gasoline shortages
and what they perceived as President
Carter’s mismanagement of the Iranian
hostage crisis, elected Ronald Reagan
president in 1980.
Reagan and his party ushered in a
new approach to fiscal management
dubbed “Reagonomics.” For Kingdom
House and other social service
providers, these federal funding
changes drastically altered the amount
of governmental support an agency
was eligible to receive. Thinking back,
Morse recalls:
I remember to this
day the single hardest
obstacle for us to
overcome – and we are
still suffering from it – is
the big change in Title
XX child-care funding
in ca. 1982 or 1983. We
dropped from $11.00
per day reimbursement
to $7.00. The funds
have never really been
replaced…with Reagan
came the child-care block
grants that resulted in
really big changes and
cuts. We have never
really recovered from
that big hit. It meant that
it was difficult and nearly
impossible to maintain
B
A
P hotos:
A: Richard Gephart, Pam
Talley,Youth Director,William
McRoberts, Employment
and Training Coordinator
and Bob Puyear
B: Antwine Rook, youth and
sports programmer
I hired Pam Talley
in the early eighties
as a full time youth
worker because
she was a nurse
that wanted to do
community and youth
work.