Lily House Project

The Lily House Project: The Ultimate Goal of the Golden Phoenix Foundation

What: a home for girls who have or are about to age out of the orphanage system in China

Where: locations to be determined, near our daughter’s orphanage locations to start

Why: Inspired by the beauty, joy and happiness we experience with our two daughters, Lily and Jaden, who were both adopted from Chinese orphanages. Each day as we watch them grow and thrive, we wonder about the others, the ones who have been left behind…don’t they also have the potential to experience life at the same high level as our daughters? And don’t they deserve a chance to develop that potential?

A large number of orphans currently residing in institutional orphanages in China will never be adopted. Our premise is that each of these children have value, and deserve a chance to lead a dignified life. Many receive no or inadequate education, and when they leave the orphanage have no family, nowhere to go and have very little chance of successful and dignified integration into society.

The Lily House project will seek to create beautiful, safe, loving and stimulating environments to support these young girls in realizing and developing their potential. Lily House will provide an alternative family for these children who have been left to face the world largely alone, and provide a bulwark against the possibility of exploitation.

The actual structure will be distinctive, beautiful and inviting. The home will be kept to 20-30 girls so that the home-like environment can be maintained. However, as the need is so great, the ultimate goal is that many locations would be established in order to serve as large a number of these girls as possible.

Lily House will also provide opportunities for both education and skills training. With Chinese and American business partners, we will create a jobs program which will offer purposeful employment to the residents of Lily House after they complete the program at age 18.

Lily House will establish a rotating list of professionals from all walks of life to visit and offer workshops to the residents. Exposure to art, music, literature, design and architecture will enrich the lives of those at Lily House, and provide windows into the possibilities that life holds. Mentoring relationships with professionals in all areas will be developed. An exchange program with a U.S. school will be established to provide the opportunity for American students to visit Lily House, and Lily House residents to visit a U.S. school.