By Sally Ferguson, Executive Director, Sunnybrook Children’s Home
For more than six decades, Sunnybrook Children’s Home has faithfully served children, young adults and families across Mississippi by providing safe, stable and nurturing environments where young lives can heal, grow and move forward with hope. That enduring legacy is one of the reasons I am so honored to join this ministry.
That legacy matters. It matters because the needs facing children and families in our state are real. It matters because foster families need more than encouragement; they need practical support, trusted relationships and a community willing to walk with them. And it matters because every child and young adult served by Sunnybrook deserves stability, opportunity and the chance to thrive.
Throughout my career, I have been privileged to advocate for children and help strengthen systems of support across Mississippi. I have worked alongside child advocacy centers, courts, child protection partners, law enforcement, nonprofit leaders and community organizations. In each setting, I have seen the same truth: children are best served when adults work together with discipline, compassion and a shared sense of responsibility.
At Sunnybrook, I have the privilege to continue that work in a more direct and personal way.
This is a season of meaningful momentum for the ministry. Over the past year, Sunnybrook has stepped into a broader role in Mississippi’s child welfare landscape through its licensing partnership with the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services. That designation allows Sunnybrook to help recruit, train, license and support foster families across the state, expanding the ministry’s ability to serve children who need safe and stable homes.
But this work is not simply about increasing capacity. It is about strengthening the support around children and families so stability can last.
Through Sunnybrook’s Foster Family Campus ministry, we are building a model of care rooted in community, mentorship and shared responsibility. Foster families should not have to carry this calling alone. They need encouragement, guidance, respite, prayer and practical help. When families are supported well, children are given a stronger foundation beneath them.
That same commitment extends to young people preparing for adulthood. In 2025, Sunnybrook’s Driver’s Education Program helped 220 foster youth across 82 counties earn their driver’s licenses. For many young people, a license means more than transportation. It can mean access to work, school, independence and confidence. It can become one more step toward a future they can begin to claim for themselves.
Sunnybrook’s transitional living and independent living programs are built around that same kind of practical hope. A safe place to live, life skills, meaningful employment, a mentor, a driver’s license and a strong support system may seem like ordinary things, but for a young person who has experienced instability, they can make the difference between simply surviving and truly thriving.
I am grateful to begin this role following a season of faithful leadership and careful stewardship from Sunnybrook’s board, staff, donors, churches, volunteers and community partners. Their work has helped position this ministry for an important next chapter.
As we look ahead, growth alone is not the goal.
The goal is faithfulness. The goal is excellence. The goal is to make sure every child, young adult and foster family served by Sunnybrook knows they are seen, valued and not walking alone.
I am entering this season by listening, learning and building relationships. I look forward to supporting Sunnybrook’s dedicated staff and board, strengthening community partnerships and helping ensure the children and young adults we serve have the stability, support and opportunities they need to thrive.
Sunnybrook cannot do this work alone, and we were never meant to. This is a ministry that belongs to a community. It takes families willing to foster, churches willing to serve, businesses willing to invest, volunteers willing to mentor and neighbors willing to help carry hope into hard places.
At Sunnybrook, our vision for the days ahead is simple: home for children who need stability, hope for families carrying a difficult calling and healing for young lives shaped by loss but not defined by it.
The calling has been steady since 1963, but the opportunities before us are growing. By God’s grace and with the support of this community, Sunnybrook will continue providing stability, support and hope that children, young adults and families across Mississippi need to rise, thrive and take flight.
To learn more about fostering, volunteering, mentoring or supporting Sunnybrook’s ministry, visit sunnybrookms.org or call (601) 856-6555.