Construction begins on new youth home
Flathead Youth Home will break ground Monday on a $1.1 million youth shelter in a northeast Kalispell neighborhood.
A groundbreaking ceremony is planned at 10 a.m. Monday at the site, on the northeast corner of the intersection of Eighth Avenue East North and Oregon Avenue.
Swank Enterprises is the general contractor for the 10-bedroom, two-story home that will provide 5,654 square feet of living space for the youth program. The facility will be designed especially for shelter care, in a split-level configuration to allow varying ratios of boys and girls.
The new home will be finished next spring and doubles the number of bedrooms at the current facility on Panoramic Drive.
"We will stay licensed for eight kids," development coordinator Hanna Plumb said. "These kids come from such different backgrounds, that to allow them to have their own room [in the new home] is an important thing we haven't been able to do before."
Flathead Youth Home is a branch of the nonprofit Missoula-based Youth Homes. It serves youths ages 10 to 18.
Residents are children who have been referred by the local youth court or family-services department. The shelter accommodates children whose family lives are typically in crisis, providing temporary housing until they can return to their families or secure foster care.
The program has 24-hour supervision and offers individual and group counseling as well as activity programs. The average stay is about a month.
It has operated at several locations through the years.
The shelter rented property on Homestead Road from Flathead County for several years, but in 2001 a diesel leak on the property forced the shelter essentially to close overnight.
Then it rented a home on Four Mile Drive, but had to close in mid-2006 because the house was sold. Residents were sent to other facilities, including the home in Missoula.
The program has temporarily operated at 14 Panoramic Drive for the past two years.
FLATHEAD Youth Home received a $450,000 Community Development Block Grant and is in the middle of a capital campaign to raise the rest.
Plumb said several generous gifts have come from foundations and individual donors. The annual Glacier Challenge is one of the youth home's biggest fundraisers.
"Over the next couple months we'll be going to the community to generate support," Plumb said.
About $400,000 still needs to be raised.
Flathead Youth Home is a member agency of United Way and receives some funding through that organization. United Way donors may designate their gifts for the youth home.
Others interested in donating to the project can send contributions to Flathead Youth Home, 14 Panoramic Drive, Kalispell, MT 59901.
More information about Youth Homes is available online at www.youthhomes.com
Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com