As a pediatric nurse practitioner for 30 years, Marie Lanzon daily confronts the challenges of children and teen-agers trapped in the foster care system.

Not willing to accept the grim situation of more than 3,000 youngsters anxiously awaiting adoption, Lanzon volunteered as a court-appointed special advocate, CASA, in 2004 to reunite children with their parents when possible and when unable for them to return home, find a permanent adoptive home for them.

It quickly became apparent to Lanzon that finding adoptive homes for large groups of siblings, teens and children with special needs is difficult.

“I realized that they were not getting adopted and kept moving from family to family,” said Lanzon, a Fountain Hills resident since 1979. “I find it tragic.”

The mother of two became aware of intergenerational communities that changed the lives of foster children and active seniors.

She created and became president of Hope Village, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that meets two pressing social challenges: children in need of families and seniors in search of purpose in their lives.

Construction of Hope Village, an intergenerational community for adoptive families and seniors, is under way in Mesa.

The project is a replica of the award-winning Generations of Hope Meadows community in Rantoul, Ill., which has provided an intentional community for adoptive families and seniors since 1994.

Lanzon and her seven- member board of volunteers hired Stephanie Small as acting interim director. They partnered with Save the Family Foundation, Arizona Adoption and Foster Care and non-profit developer Gorman and Company to create, when completed, 125 affordable housing units.

The 11-acre site in the Escobedo neighborhood of Mesa is located at University and Pasadena, near Center Street.

Lanzon said the project replaces abandoned barrack housing for airmen assigned to Falcon Field and eliminates neighborhood blight.

Groundbreaking for the $16.1 million first phase occurred in early December. Phase I allocates six three-bedroom units for families and 18 one-to-two bedroom units for active seniors to become surrogate grandparents to the younger generation, said Lanzon. In return for their involvement, the seniors receive affordable housing.

The first families are expected to move in late fall. The second phase is due to be completed at the end of 2014.

When not working at Children’s Rehabilitative Services in Phoenix and Devereux, a Scottsdale residential treatment facility for youngsters with behavioral and mental health problems, Lanzon raises awareness of the state’s foster care children.

“It’s not that they (people) don’t care, they don’t know” of the extent of the problem, said Lanzon.

Currently Arizona has 14,200 children in foster care. Children who grow up in the foster care system face overwhelming challenges, including homelessness, teen pregnancy, poverty, physical and mental illness, low educational attainment and engaging in or being victims of crime.

Lanzon mentioned one 11-year-old boy who has lived in 20 different foster homes.

“Our driving vision is to see that all children in the Arizona foster care system will reside in a loving forever family,” said Lanzon.

“We need to do something better in getting children adopted. There are some families with big hearts,” said Lanzon, referring to one family who adopted seven children.

Lanzon hopes to raise $300,000 over three years to hire a full-time permanent executive director to oversee Hope Village.

She sees Hope Village becoming a model of success for Child Protective Services.

“At Hope Village, the meaning of community is rediscovered and redefined as a network of caring relationships built upon a shared mission: piecing shattered childhoods back together again,” according to Lanzon.

She can be contacted at (602) 717-9858, P.O. Box 13256, Scottsdale, or mlanzon@hopevillageaz.org