Cuyahoga County leaders hope they have found a solution to the problem of placing kids with nowhere else to go at a county office building.
The county is paying to expand services at the Cleveland Christian Home, a West Side emergency child care center run by the Centers for Families and Children. The new Cuyahoga County Child Wellness Campus would stand as an alternative to the Jane Edna Hunter building, the child services headquarters that long has served as a shelter of last resort for kids in county custody.
“We do not want to see buses, ambulances, dropping kids off at the Jane Edna Hunter building,” County Executive Chris Ronayne said. “We want to create this campus for the specific purposes of addressing kids most in need.”
For years, the Jane Edna Hunter building has acted as an overnight waystation for children without other options. Anywhere from 1 to 11 children have spent the night in the office building this year, according to county data. County social workers have raised the alarm about volatile situations in the building that have escalated into violence, putting both staff and kids at risk.
While the county would still not be able to turn children away from the Jane Edna Hunter building, the new campus would give kids a better option, Ronayne said.
Officials described the proposed campus as a new “front door” for children to see specialists and access education and medical, mental and behavioral care. The county will seed the effort with $450,000 to hire new staff.
The full estimated cost for the campus is $8 million. The Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities has given the county a grant of $500,000 and the Centers has raised $100,000, a county spokesperson said.
Originally an orphanage, the Cleveland Christian Home offers a variety of residential treatment services for kids dealing with trauma and emotional disturbances. The home – located at West 114th Street and Lorain Avenue – offers both open residential treatment and “highly supervised and restrictive” care for children who need it, according to its website.
Jacqueline Fletcher, who directs the county’s children and family services division, said she hoped the new campus would host more than 50 beds. Staff at the new center could also connect kids with other living arrangements they’d be better suited for, such as group homes, she said.
The county aims to cut down the amount of time that children spend in temporary placements waiting for the services and housing they need, Fletcher said.
“The goal is to identify that most appropriate setting for a young person and then get them to that space as quickly as possible,” she said. “Kids need options.”
