Press Release - Providence House Completes New East Campus Crisis Nursery

Posted October 12, 2023 in Press Releases

Members of the media are invited to join Providence House, local officials, and community supporters on Friday, October 13, 2023, at 11 am for an East Campus Crisis Nursery Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony celebrating the completion of our new Crisis Nursery in the Buckeye-Shaker Neighborhood.

Providence House, Ohio’s first Crisis Nursery, will become the nation’s largest residential Crisis Nursery with the opening of our new 20-bed Crisis Nursery in Cleveland’s Buckeye-Shaker community. The new Crisis Nursery will allow us to serve nearly 250 additional children each year and is named Hope’s House in honor of our founder, Sister Hope Greener, CSJ, who opened Providence House in 1981.

Over the past 42 years, we have kept more than 14,000 children safe and their families together on our West Campus in Ohio City, and last year, 98% of the families who had a child stay with us reunited after successfully addressing the crisis situation that brought them to us! Together, our East and West Campus Crisis Nurseries will care for nearly 600 infants and children each year!

Our East Campus was constructed to address an alarming increase in the need for our Family Preservation Crisis Nursery services - as approximately 400 children are on our waitlist or go completely unserved each year due to a lack of space and resources. Nearly 70% of those children live in East Side neighborhoods, so we decided to “grow where the children are” and build our second home in a community more accessible to families and children who need us.

Our Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony will feature remarks from the following Providence House champions:

• Greg Rush, Senior Vice President and CFO of the Cleveland Browns and Chair of the Providence House Board of Directors
• Paul and Karen Dolan of the Cleveland Guardians, Co-Chairs of our Giving Hope for the PHuture Campaign for our East Campus
• Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne
• Cleveland City Council President Blaine Griffin
• Natalie A. Leek, Providence House President and CEO

The ceremony will also feature an Interfaith Blessing bestowed by our East Side neighbors, Rabbi Josh Jacobs of B’nai Jeshurun Congregation and Pastor Clarence Hall of Morning Star Baptist Church.

The Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony will be held in the parking lot of our new East Campus at 11801 Buckeye Road, Cleveland. You can enter the parking lot from East 119th Street. Limited parking will be available in the lot, but there is also street parking available as well as in an adjacent lot on East 118th Street.

*Please note - our Ribbon-Cutting ceremony is by invitation only, but we are also hosting a Community Open House on Friday, October 13, from 3 - 6 pm so the public can tour our new East Campus and learn more about our services for children and families. Media is welcome at both events.

More on the Story

While we are incredibly grateful to be celebrating the completion of our East Campus Crisis Nursery, unfortunately, financial challenges are currently delaying our ability to begin welcoming children at our new East Campus Crisis Nursery.

Despite 42 years of proven success in our mission to keep kids safe and families together, we remain 80% privately funded and are often at the mercy of economic, environmental, and international conditions.

These challenges have been significantly amplified by the post-pandemic economy:

• Inflation and workforce pay demand have increased our costs by 24%
• Economic concerns are driving fundraising down across the nonprofit sector
• Our largest government funder has decreased by 60% over the past 4 years
• The crisis nursery state budget line was just reduced by $150,000

Given our current funding challenges, we are pausing recruitment and staffing for our new East Campus Crisis Nursery at this time in an effort to stabilize our funding levels for children and families in crisis at our West Campus. It is important to remind everyone that the funds we received through our Giving Hope for the PHuture Capital Campaign were restricted for construction and cannot be used for operating costs.

Providence House is committed to opening our new East Campus so we can address the increasing needs of children and families that prompted our expansion and will ramp up East Campus services in phases as soon as our funding levels recover.

To reach our goal of beginning services at our East Campus, we have launched an Urgent Need Appeal to help cover the recent cuts in our funding and are asking the community for support.

If we can raise $150,000 by Friday, October 20, an anonymous donor has agreed to match that amount dollar for dollar! Anyone interested in making a gift can visit our website, provhouse.org/urgent.

About Providence House

Providence House has helped keep more than 14,000 children safe and families together in the last 42 years, embracing them with support to enhance stability and strengthen communities.

We provide free, voluntary, 24/7 emergency shelter to children newborn through age 12 whose families are experiencing crisis situations such as homelessness, domestic violence, sobriety, mental health, or medical challenges. Our Family Preservation Crisis Nursery is a safe, licensed, homelike environment for children that gives parents and guardians peace of mind knowing their children remain in their custody and are receiving loving care.

While their children stay with us, parents and guardians engage with our Social Work Team to address the challenges they’re facing through counseling, parenting education, trauma services, case management, and connections to our more than 130 community partner agencies to provide support and build a strong foundation for their family’s future.

Our families come from nearly 30 zip codes across Greater Cleveland. The majority of families served are led by single moms of color. Last year, 20% of our families came to Providence House without any income, and nearly 100% met the ALICE threshold of earning non-living wages.

We also offer community-based services, including a Community Education and Resiliency Program and a Community Referral Program that provides essential need items to families through referrals from partner agencies.

Our West Campus is located in Ohio City, and our new East Campus is located in the Buckeye-Shaker Neighborhood.

CONTACT Kaitlyn Lionti, Providence House | kaitlyn@provhouse.org | 216.651.5892 ext. 141