Group aiding homeless children settles into new, larger facility
April 9, 2008EL RENO – For 20 years, a dated El Reno nursing home provided shelter to homeless children. Crowded, worn and inefficient, the building couldn’t keep up. Children – abuse victims, runaways, or both – had to be turned away. There wasn’t enough room, even at this meager inn.
A grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation enabled the nonprofit Youth & Family Services Inc. to build a new emergency shelter for homeless children in Canadian, Blaine and Kingfisher counties. The organization provides shelter and counseling services.
When the organization moved into the nursing home building about 20 years ago the structure was already old and outdated. A living area and kitchen were added and patient rooms were converted to living quarters and offices.
Dee Blose, executive director of Youth & Family Services, said constant repairs and an increasingly outdated facility led the organization’s board to begin looking at funding options for a new building in the late 1990s.
“We had outgrown it and we just couldn’t keep repairing it for the purpose we were using it for,” Blose said.
Serving all from abused minors to runaways, demand had increased to the point that some had to be turned away due to a lack of beds. The new facility will allow the organization to serve 40 percent more children than the previous building.
In 2000 the board began to pursue the Reynolds grant and spent about a year completing the application and the plans for the building design.
Blose said that first year the application made it to the second round of the Reynolds selection process but did not advance. In 2002, however, they reapplied and received a $5.1 million grant from Reynolds.
Some additional money had to be raised, as well as enough cash to meet a requirement from Reynolds that 20 percent of the awarded amount must be raised for a restricted maintenance fund.
The organization purchased 6.7 acres from Canadian County and began work on the Donald W. Reynolds Caring Center, two buildings with a total of 27,000 square feet.
The building is also part of a campus that includes a DHS family services unit, a county alternative school, the district attorney’s office and other youth and juvenile services.
Youth & Family Services chose the Tulsa office of PSA Dewberry to design the new facility and Oklahoma City-based Landmark Construction Group to build the structures.
The new center will not only increase the services the center can offer but also provide a level of privacy and security that was absent in the old building.
Vic Thompson, senior associate and director of design with PSA Dewberry, said the design is intended to be inviting, but with layers of accessibility for the safety of visitors and residents of the center. He said the organization knew its needs and wanted to resolve the limitations of the old building.
“They were a great client to work for,” he said. “They knew what they wanted and knew what they needed.”
The design includes an L-shaped administration building that is connected to the shelter. The brick buildings also have low-pitched roof lines and a look Thompson described as residential character.
Blose and her staff began moving into the building in September and worked out a few bugs. Youth & Family Services is now officially moved in, and the facility is fully operational.
“It is a 1,000-percent improvement from our prior facility,” Blose said.
