Casa de los Niños is raising money for a $12 million family resource center to house support and abuse-prevention services for vulnerable families.
The 39,000-square-foot Family Center will consolidate operations for many of the nonprofit’s prevention and intervention programs that are already helping Tucson families stay together.
“The new Family Center will have a dramatic impact on this community, allowing us to break the legacy of abuse and neglect for future generations of families,” said Susie Huhn, executive director of Casa de los Niños.
Centralizing operations for those services will improve efficiency and help families navigate all of the nonprofit’s offerings, said Lisa Webster, Casa’s development director.
A recent $3 million gift has brought total fundraising for the project to $7.5 million. The nonprofit hopes to break ground in 2016 and construction is expected to take about a year, Webster said.
The unprecedented $3 million donation, from Cole and Jeannie Davis of Tucson, was “a huge gift for child and family welfare,” Webster said. “It’s always the university and sports that are getting these big-announcement gifts. To get a $3 million gift for a nonprofit association is just so incredibly inspiring.”
The Davises said in a statement that they’ve been concerned about child welfare in Arizona and wanted to make a difference.
“We are deeply moved and impressed by the work of Casa de los Niños and their commitment to the children and families of Tucson,” said Jeannie Davis.
Building the new facility on the nonprofit’s property will also free Casa from worry of rent hikes at leased buildings throughout the city, Webster said. Casa owns the entire block on Speedway between Fourth Avenue and Fifth Avenue but only uses a quarter of that campus, she said.
The center will include space for therapeutic child and family services, meeting space for parent-education classes and community educational lectures, plus office space for staff of in-home support programs, like Nurse-Family Partnership and Parents as Teachers.
The programs provide support to families who are struggling, or who are already involved with Child Protective Services, as well as vulnerable, first-time mothers who need extra support to ensure a healthy pregnancy and early childhood for their baby.
For 20-year-old Alyssa Richards, Casa’s Nurse-Family Partnership was a helpful bridge to motherhood.
Raised by a devoted single dad, Richards was the first of her siblings to have a child. She was barely 18 and unexpectedly pregnant when the father of her child moved out of state.
“I had never even held a baby before, so I knew nothing at all about babies,” she said.
With many questions and few places to turn for answers, Richards joined the Nurse-Family Partnership. She got bimonthly visits from a nurse during her pregnancy. Once she gave birth to Dylan, now 22 months old, she got weekly visits from the nurse, who helped with nursing and basics like how to baby-proof the house. She texted the nurse anytime with questions. Richards, who is about to graduate from the program, said it was comforting to know she had a resource to make herself a better parent.
“I want to be the parent that my dad was,” said Richards, whose father lives in Tucson. “He gave up everything for us.”
With more than 15,700 children in Arizona in state custody, family-support programs through agencies like Casa de los Niños are a crucial way to help keep families strong and intact, even as the Legislature has cut spending on evidence-based prevention programs, Webster said.
“We are very confident that by creating a resource here on this campus, it’s going to give us the flexibility we need and the consistency we need to continue to help families,” Webster said, “no matter what’s happening in Phoenix and Washington.”
