Vacant Beloit elementary school could become transitional living facility
The proposed ‘Next Steps Family Resilience Center’ will be housed at the former Royce Elementary School The former Royce Elementary School in Beloit, Wisconsin, could become a new transitional living facility. The proposed ‘Next Steps Family Resilience Center’ will be housed at the former school, which shut down in 2011 and has been vacant ever since. Marc Perry, executive director of Community Action for South Central Wisconsin, is partnering with Family Service of Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois to develop the resource center. The project will offer low-income housing and childcare for families, with Perry also providing on-site supportive services. $5 million in funds has been acquired through Rock County and City of Beloit American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, with another $3.6 million needed to complete the project.
Опубликовано : 4 недели назад от Shaina Nijhawan в
BELOIT, Wis. (WMTV) - A neighborhood in Beloit could be seeing a new transitional living facility in the near future, frustrating some residents in the area.
The proposed ‘Next Steps Family Resilience Center’ will be housed at the former Royce Elementary School, which shut down in 2011 and has been vacant ever since.
Marc Perry is a Beloit native and executive director of Community Action for South Central Wisconsin, Inc., an organization dedicated to fighting poverty.
“The need for housing is always high in our community, especially housing and transitional housing for families,” Perry said. “Helping families make that move from homelessness to a transitional space and a permanent housing.”
Perry is partnering with Family Service of Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois who is spearheading the resource center. Through the project, families will be offered low-income housing and childcare.
“We would also like to have on-site supportive services that range from case management and services to the youth to mental health therapy and a variety of other things,” CEO of Family Service Kelsey Hood-Christenson said.
Perry says a lot of the families they serve need more than just housing support, and the Next Steps Family Resilience Center will offer several resources in one place. He says his goal is to break the poverty gap.
“Education and literacy are critically important part of a child’s development. So that’s one of the things we’re excited about is being able to provide early learning, early literacy to the young people who are going to be proud of this project.”
The empty elementary school will now serve youth in another way.
“Working with parents, working with children, doing a lot of prevention work with younger people to keep them out of the cycle in the first place,” he said. “So that’s one of the best parts about being able to do projects like this, working with families on all levels.”
Hood-Christenson says $5 million in funds has been acquired through Rock County and City of Beloit American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds. Another $3.6 million is needed to complete the project.
“If you want a great return on investment in terms of advancing the community, this is an excellent project to support,” Perry said,” And again, we’re going to be helping parents in their current situation, but also building creating some building blocks for children in the future. So the return on investment for our for our future for our youth is going to be incredible.”
Neighbors in the area say they’re worried about the traffic the center could bring to the area, adding it has been a quiet, vacant lot for many years.
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