Children's Home gets started on their $10M master plan

Sunday marked the end of the first phase of Children’s Home of Cincinnati’s new $10 million master plan designed to expand and upgrade the organization’s campus along Madison Road.

With the deconstruction of the former residential home by Cincinnati-based Building Value, phase one of the plan is now underway. The site will eventually become the Adolescent Services & High School Building.

The products removed will be salvaged and donated to the Building Value retail outlet at 2901 Gilbert Avenue so that they can be sold and reused by individuals throughout the city.

The deconstruction process is an environmentally responsible alternative to typical demolition and will help the Children’s Home work towards LEED certification for their construction project.

Building Value and their parent organization Easter Seals Work Resource Center, benefit workers with disadvantages says Jerry Janszen, director of Building Value.  “Offering these materials for reuse, benefits a wide variety of people in our community,” says Janszen.

During these deconstruction projects the Building Value team has been able to salvage 80 percent of building materials helping buildings work towards higher LEED certifications.

This is an exciting project for Children’s Home as well says Stacy Sill.  “Kids have not lived here since 1998, and we have not had adequate residential space to meet the demands of our kids until now.”

Sill says they will break ground on the new facilities immediately following the tear down.  After construction starts, the Children’s Home hopes to complete the project in time for the 2011 school year.

Over time the Children’s Home hopes to raise roughly $5 million through an ongoing campaign that has already raised $3.46 million towards the end total.

Incorporated in 1864, The Children’s Home of Cincinnati is a private, nonprofit organization that transforms the lives of children and their families facing social, behavioral and learning challenges. More than twenty intensive day programs and community-based services provide special education and mental health treatment to children of all ages. Last year, nearly 7,000 individuals were positively impacted by The Children’s Home.

Writer: Randy Simes
Source: Stacy Sill, The Children's Home of Cincinnati; Pam Green, Building Value LLC
Images provided