A Hidden Gem in the Heart of the East Side
Cincinnati Children’s Home is expanding, and they’ve got the party to prove it.
The area along Madison Road and Red Bank Expressway between Madisonville and Oakley is bursting with new construction and roadway improvements. In the center of all the revitalization, tucked away on 40 tree-filled acres, sits The Children’s Home of Cincinnati. Incorporated in 1864 and located on Madison Road since 1917, the private, nonprofit organization is experiencing a revitalization of its own.
The Children’s Home was originally established as an orphanage and eventually morphed into a residential treatment center for troubled youth until the late 1990’s. Today, it has evolved into a non-residential, multi-service organization providing special education and mental health treatment to thousands of children and their families each year. Campus and community-based programs serve children ages birth to 18 years who face significant social, behavioral and learning challenges that prevent them from succeeding in their home, school and community settings.
A Diamond in the Rough. Though its service model has changed with the needs of the community, its campus facilities drag woefully behind. Former residential spaces have been turned into classrooms and offices, and a satellite location’s buildings were acquired in such dire need of renovation that portable classroom units have temporarily replaced them.
Like the east side areas surrounding it, The Children’s Home is experiencing growing pains. Over the last 7 years, it has grown from serving just over 3,000 children to nearly 7,000. The solution to the ever-growing needs may lie within the community itself.
The Children’s Home of Cincinnati has launched the first building campaign in its 144-year history. The Building on a Legacy of Excellence campaign will support an extensive campus improvement plan to transform its services and facilities. The campaign aims to raise $5 million in support of a $10 million Master Plan to expand, consolidate, and upgrade the campus on Madison Road. The plan will allow the organization to continue its legacy of services for children and families in more appropriate and modern facilities with more efficient operations.
The campaign addresses several needs that Ellen Katz Johnson, President & CEO of The Children’s Home, says are urgent: “Since closing our residential programs in 1998, we’ve experienced an extraordinary increase in demand for our services which continues to grow at an astonishing rate. Our facilities have to accommodate this rapid growth to meet the needs of children and their families now and well into the future.”
There are three primary objectives to the campaign: to consolidate operations in one location for greater efficiencies and use of resources, upgrade facilities for current programs and their growth, and expand to meet increasing demand for services. The Madison Road campus was last updated in the mid 1980’s to serve a few dozen at a time. Now, it boasts over 200 employees and serves thousands of children throughout the community. Hope Academy, a therapeutic High School currently located in Mt. Healthy, will be relocated to a new High School building on the Madison Road campus to increase efficiencies and the number of services available to children in the program. The need for more adequate office space was addressed last fall with the completion of a new Community Services Center, replacing a formerly leased office building in Roselawn, where staff tripled and quadrupled in offices designed for one or two persons. The new center, which sits at the rear of the campus off Duck Creek Road, accommodates approximately 75 early childhood and mental health staff and various therapeutic treatment spaces.
Securing the Resources. The objectives can only be realized through a successful campaign. Leading the effort are Co-Chairs Jim and Darla Wainscott. Jim is the Chairman, President, and CEO of AK Steel and Darla is a member of The Children’s Home’s Board of Trustees. Setting the pace is an extraordinary commitment from the Board of Trustees, whose combined campaign gifts total over $1.3 million. Additional campaign gifts bring the total raised to date to $3.46 million. With these gifts in hand, support in all amounts is being sought from the broader community.
Darla Wainscott shares that she and her husband feel strong compassion for children who do not have the same advantages as their own. “As we watch our own children grow,” says Darla, “we are reminded that we have a responsibility to all children. We must care for the children who otherwise have limited opportunities to succeed.”
Securing one-time gifts to complete campus improvements is of critical importance. Also crucial is ongoing support for the more than 20 programs that change the lives of vulnerable children each day.
In addition to her role in the campaign, Darla Wainscott is an integral part of helping to secure ongoing support as well. Six years ago, she dreamed up the theme for a uniquely entertaining annual fundraiser: the Rockin’ Lobster Party. The end of the summer shindig features Anthony and Dede Muñoz as Honorary Chairs and legendary funk master Bootsy Collins and his wife, Patti, as Honorary Guests. Now in its sixth year, guests have come to love the event for its casual dress code and party atmosphere. Whole Maine lobster and filet mignon dinner is served with a full buffet of side items, followed by live music and dancing, specialty drink bars, and live and silent auctions. One hundred percent of proceeds from the event, which is held on Saturday, August 22 at 6:30 p.m., are used directly for services to vulnerable children.
The undertaking of its first ever building campaign and a sizeable annual fundraiser may seem daunting given the current economic climate. The Children’s Home, however, is confident that the community will recognize that difficult times increase the needs of at-risk children and their families and causes demand for services to grow. “In the end,” says Darla Wainscott, “our efforts are about much more than new buildings and fundraising events. We’re providing the right environments at the right time to kids who need it most. I don’t know how anyone can say no to that. ”
For more information about The Children’s Home, the Building on a Legacy of Excellence campaign or the Rockin’ Lobster Party, visit www.thechildrenshomecinti.org or call (513) 272-2800.
