Beyond residential placement – followed by six months of after-care support – the home’s OWENA Alumni Programme allows former residents to receive continued support as they reintegrate into society.
Ms Wong takes plenty of heart from “graduates” of the home returning to volunteer or bring current residents gifts once they have jobs of their own, or stepping forward to share their stories to encourage corporate donors to support the home’s work.
“From a child welfare protection standpoint … nobody wants to stay in (a) children’s home,” said Ms Wong.
“But the fact that (my alumni) are willing to come back tells me there’s something right that the home is doing, and (my thought is then) how do we then multiply that.”
Running a residential home, Ms Wong said, is very different from meeting patients in a clinic.
She spends her days – and often nights too – receiving and assessing data points on the girls’ conditions and needs, meeting with them at the home and attending to their basic psychological needs.
“I see myself as being that consistent adult who needs to show up for these young ladies, so we can help them through that journey.”
She also serves as an advocate for the home in fundraising efforts and meeting would-be corporate donors.
One misconception she often encounters outside of the home and with volunteers is an expectation that children and teens undergoing adversity will present in a certain way.
“A common comment would be: ‘Oh, she looks so normal. She’s all dressed up like any other teenager’. But what do you expect?”
Ms Wong has also heard pointed comments about someone from a lower-income background spending on seemingly non-essential items such as bubble tea.
“What they didn’t (see) was that bubble tea was the only thing she had for the whole day. So that bubble tea, for four bucks, was the happiest thing that she could have that day.”
She added: “That’s how we all cope with life. We don’t always show how we feel.”