It was Halloween, and Doug Marshall was making his rounds at the Presbyterian Home for Children’s fall festival when a boy in a Spider-Man costume came through the door.
Marshall recognized him immediately. This was the same child who, not long before, had arrived on campus frightened and quiet after weeks of living with his mother and twin baby sisters in a Chevy Trailblazer in a parking lot. His father had been killed in a car accident. His mother had lost her job caring for sick children, then lost their apartment. At 8 years old, he had become the man of the house.
Now, surveying the festival with the full authority of a superhero, he caught Marshall’s eye and announced: “I’m here to protect the city.”
“He went from being scared to the confidence of Spider-Man,” says Marshall, who serves as President and CEO of PHFC. “That’s what we do.”
A Living Legacy
What the Presbyterian Home for Children does — and has done for 158 years — is create the conditions in which that kind of transformation becomes possible. Founded in 1867 in Talladega, Alabama, PHFC began as an orphanage, one of many faith-based institutions established in the aftermath of the Civil War to care for children with nowhere else to go. Over the decades that followed, as state and federal governments assumed a larger role in child welfare, the home evolved steadily from orphanage to congregate care, and eventually to something far more expansive.
“The mission of serving at-risk and homeless children and families hasn’t changed,” says Marshall, who arrived at PHFC eight years ago after a 25-year career as a corporate financial executive in Birmingham. “But how we carry it out has.”
Today, PHFC’s newly adopted mission statement reflects both its history and its trajectory: a faith-based beacon of hope, transforming the lives of children, young adults and families.
From Shelter to Possibility
PHFC’s flagship program is Secure Dwellings, which fills a crucial gap by providing transitional housing for homeless mothers and their children. In Alabama, Marshall notes, resources for single homeless women are relatively plentiful, but options for women with children are scarce.
Secure Dwellings offers up to two years of campus-based stability, wraparound support services, and on-site education through Ascension Leadership Academy, PHFC’s fully accredited K-12 private school located at First Presbyterian Church of Talladega.
“We’re able to take a homeless mom and get her stabilized — a place where she’s at rest, at peace, and she can dream again,” Marshall says.
A newer aspect of the program, the Family Unity Center, serves mothers whose children have been removed by the state’s Department of Human Resources due to unsuitable housing — not abuse, but the quiet devastation of poverty. PHFC advocates for these families in court, with early results that have been remarkable. One mother recently reunited with her two young children after a PHFC social worker testified on her behalf; the judge ruled on the spot.
Beyond the campus, PHFC’s intensive in-home services, Family Bridges, deploys staff into homes across seven East Central Alabama counties to preserve and reunite families under a state contract. Caminos® launched two years ago in partnership with the faith-based nonprofit Everstand, conducts home studies and post-release services for unaccompanied immigrant minors being released from federal shelters to sponsor families — work that takes PHFC staff across the country.
“Our bravest employees are those going into homes in really tough situations,” Marshall says. “But they go in there because of the children.”
In 2020 during the pandemic, PHFC began a mission outreach project about three hours away in a rural community of Pine Hill, where children and families are experiencing extreme poverty. By working alongside a small nonprofit named Mentoring in New Dimension (MIND), this mission partnership is bringing hope and healing to a community long forgotten in Alabama. Earlier this year, PHFC was recognized with a national group mission award for this work.
At the back of the PHFC campus, a quieter venture has also taken shape: Union Village, a permanent supportive housing community for blind and deaf adults, developed with the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind. PHFC owns the property; AIDB operates the program. Marshall calls it a union of missions, one that has brought safe and affordable housing to neighbors who had long lacked it and where the affordable rents provide additional funding for the care of children, young adults and families.
“There’s nothing like it in the country,” he says.
A Partner in Ministry
Supporting all this important work is a set of endowment-restricted investments managed by New Covenant Trust Company, a subsidiary of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Foundation. PHFC draws a 5% annual distribution from those funds to help finance the full scope of its operations — a discipline that requires both patient stewardship and careful planning.
The NCTC team meets with Marshall, PHFC’s Controller Sam Allison and PHFC’s Finance Committee led by Chair and Board Treasurer David Perry quarterly, reviewing market conditions, portfolio performance and investment policy. Marshall, Perry and Allison have combined finance backgrounds covering corporate, governmental and nonprofit entities, which gives them practiced eyes for investment managers.
PHFC is “completely confident, at ease and impressed with NCTC’s overall investment management and client services,” says Marshall. “They protect and grow our investments so that we can continue to have that financial security, but everybody on the team looks to see how they can help in impactful ways beyond that.”
For example, when PHFC formalized a covenant relationship with the Synod of Living Waters, extending its reach into Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky, NCTC began making introductions to Presbyterian churches and institutions across those new states. The depth of the relationship was perhaps most evident the day NCTC Financial and Investment Planning Professional David English flew in for the dedication of a newly renovated boardroom named in honor of longtime PHFC board members Newell and Mary Witherspoon.
“We view them as a ministry partner,” Marshall says. “They are fiduciaries and custodians of our money, but it’s really beyond that.”
“Witnessing PHFC uplift children and families reminds all of us at NCTC why we do what we do,” says English. “We consider it a genuine privilege to serve alongside Doug, his team and the finance committee as faithful stewards of the resources that have helped sustain this vital ministry for more than 150 years.”
Toward the Finish Line
Marshall often returns to a memory from a 2011 anniversary trip he and his wife took to Talkeetna, Alaska, where he held a sled dog puppy — one whose lineage almost certainly included Iditarod champions, and whose future likely did, too. The moment crystallized something he has carried into his work ever since.
“I believe my role is to help pull the champion out of others,” he says. “That is my particular calling at the Presbyterian Home for Children — to see that potential, see that champion, and do everything we can to ensure they have the opportunity to succeed.”
For the boy in the Spider-Man costume, and for the hundreds of children, young adults and families who pass through PHFC’s programs each year, that calling takes the form of a safe place to sleep, a school to attend, an advocate in the courtroom, a community that refuses to let them disappear.
“We envision a world where every individual we serve finds peace, safety and healing and is empowered to reach their full potential,” Marshall says. “They are made in the image of Almighty God, with immeasurable value and great purpose.”
PHFC recently launched a capital campaign to raise funds to renovate and revitalize its Talladega campus, creating safer, warmer spaces and welcoming more families in need. Those wishing to support the work can donate, volunteer or stay connected through PHFC’s newsletter and social channels at phfc.org.