the village

Download The Village Rendering PDF


Project Description:

  • The Providence House Children’s Village Project is a 2-acre, LEED registered, expansion and renovation project designed to increase our capacity to deliver services to children and families in crisis through intensive early intervention programs offered in the Providence House Crisis Nursery setting.
    • Providence House is Ohio’s first licensed crisis nursery, offering free, voluntary (non-custodial) placements for emergency shelter to children newborn through five years old actively living in crisis situations which place them at risk of abuse or neglect. Our services are focused on protecting at risk children, preventing child abuse and neglect and preserving fragile families. Nearly 200 children are served through our programs each year. Children are referred to Providence House by more than 25 community agencies, including area hospitals, drug treatment centers and women’s shelters. As a private, non-profit agency, Providence House is 97% privately funded.


The Children’s Village:
The planned Children’s Village is fully compliant to ODJFS facility regulations for children’s residential centers and includes 5 primary building components in a fully integrated site plan:

  • Residential housing for 40 at-risk children, in a broader age range - newborn through age 10 - that are actively at risk of abuse or neglect, who will reside within five homes offering sibling living arrangements in a traditional housing floor plan, which is integrated directly into the village footprint to accommodate interior access to all functions of the facility.
    • A sixth home: The Medical Intervention and Treatment House will offer private intake and wellness suites for newly arriving children with exam, bathing and transitional areas. It will also support a home setting for the care of up to four ill children, to prevent spread of contagious illnesses to the rest of the population. Additionally, a nurse and medical supply room, treatment/exam rooms for onsite therapies and examination will also be included.
  • A Children’s Education Center supporting onsite activity-based classroom spaces and curriculum for preK-5th graders including developmental, behavioral, self care and school readiness/remediation focuses. All rooms provide indoor access to children’s homes and outdoor play areas.
  • A Parent Education Center offering six private parenting suites for concurrent family education sessions, visitation, peer mentoring and family aftercare; making this vital service available to Providence House parents and community-based referrals for parenting. The Center also features hands-on training centers such as a Kitchen: nutrition/food preparation, Bathroom: diapering/bathing, and Playroom/Gardens: play/redirection.
  • An Adult Education Center enabling our unique CEU and CDA accredited curriculum, focused on children in crisis and poverty, to be launched to early childcare providers and social workers throughout the community; this curriculum is currently offered only Providence House staff and volunteers due to space constraints.
  • Integrated Operations Center to consolidate staffing in direct care and operations/administration and reduce the redundancy and inefficiency of our existing 3-site campus. This environment also promotes our agency’s team-focused work model shared by our caregivers, administration and volunteers.
  • A sixth component of our plan is a Family Support Center housed in a renovated, existing facility to support onsite provision of critical counseling and wrap-around services to families in crisis by hosting on-campus offices for 10-15 critical partner providers. The Center will support family success and remove barriers in accessing services like domestic violence and substance abuse counseling, housing and job placement services, financial and education consultants, among others.


The Benefit

  • The primary focus for our Children’s Village is to expand our capacity to deliver existing services in facilities that are appropriate to our clients and compliant to licensing regulations. Specific aspects of new capacities in service delivery include:
    • Increase from 26 to 40 beds for children’s emergency shelter – 45% increase in census capacity
    • Increase in age range from 0-5 to 0-10 year olds, to support increasing demand for older sibling placements – often caregivers in our families
    • Ability to offer community-based enrollment in educational programming for Parent Education and professional Early Care Provider education - currently offered only to Providence House families and staff.
  • A new element of our program is a Family Support Center which removes common barriers such as lack of available providers, transportation, or adequate referrals for critical family support services to stabilize families, by providing onsite access to an array of these providers on the Village Campus.


The Economic Impact:

  • The Promise Campaign to fund our visionary “Children’s Village” is a sound investment that will have a profound impact on children and families in crisis, as well as provide tremendous economic benefits for a greater community benefit.
  • We see our primary economic development impact in 4 key areas:
    • Annually, Providence House services save Cuyahoga County over $10 Million by preventing child placement in foster care through intensive early intervention services for families in crisis. This savings increases to nearly $19 Million annually with the expanded capacity of the Children’s Village.
      • In 2007, 91% of our children reunified with their parent following an average stay of 27 days. This represents an 85% higher rate of reunification in 95% less time than our local county’s foster care results and translates into savings of over $60,000.00 per child per placement.
    • The Children’s Village will offer new employment opportunities for 18-22 professionals and para-professionals; increasing overall agency staffing to a 50+ personnel model for 24x7 operations of our Village.
      • It is important to note that many of our direct childcare providers are single parents themselves, living in the inner ring communities which Providence House serves. As employees they are offered ongoing paid training and the opportunity to seek early childcare credentialing while on staff to enhance their capacity to advance in the workforce.
    • The capital investment of $15 million to our Ohio City neighborhood (south of Lorain Road’s historic district) will offer dramatically improved housing quality and safety to our area; providing tremendous opportunity to attract investors and new homeowners to our section of Ohio City; a target development area for our CDC, Ohio City Near West Development Corp.
      • The impact of our project in community development is further enhanced as St. Ignatius High School invests an additional $12 Million, also on the south side of Lorain Road, adjacent to our Village campus, for their new Arts Center complex.
    • Annually over 120 families, 99% who are single mothers, are provided case management services and consultation to engage workforce development opportunities during their children’s placement at Providence House. The services are engaged, monitored and enhanced as needed during their child’s placement and throughout our 18-month After Care program to ensure family success and stability after reunification.
      • Our private and group-oriented onsite training programs and ability to establish client links to outside community programs for job skills, financial literacy, housing and employment services and a range of other services are a critical component of our services to stabilize the single parent family. We provide all of our services at no charge to the family to increase their willingness and capacity to engage in these important supportive services with us.


The Promise Campaign for the Children’s Village:

  • Providence House has a $20 million goal for our “Promise Campaign” to make the Children’s Village a reality. Our goal is comprised of:
    • $15 Million – Capital Costs
    • $ 5 Million – Endowment


How you can be a part of the Children’s Village:

  • A variety of gift and naming opportunities are available in the Children’s Village project. For further information about the Providence House Children’s Village or how you can be a part of our Promise Campaign please contact Natalie A. Leek-Nelson, CEO and President at 216-651-5982 ext. 224 or Natalie@provhouse.org.

"We take responsibility for children who have no one else to do it... the responsibility of providing a temporary home, food, clothing and most of all - loving care."

A Providence House Staff Member