![Providence House plans to expand with a new location on Buckeye Road on Cleveland's east side. [Google Street View]](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/5374fb0/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1325x781+0+0/resize/840x496!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F4%2F22%2FGoogleStreetViewBuckeye.JPG)
Providence House, the Ohio City care center for children whose families are in crisis, plans to double its staff and capacity with the opening of an East Side location.
The organization serves children ranging in age from infancy to 12 years old. Providence House helps around 350 children a year and hopes to add space for another 325 with this expansion, CEO Natalie Leek-Nelson said. The center also plans to hire another 45 employees.
“It was time for us to go where the children were,” she said. “With families living in poverty, transportation is a huge issue. And so their ability to get here with their children, visit their children while they’re staying with us, while we’re helping that family to get back on track, it’s just too difficult for them.”
The nonprofit bought a building in Cleveland’s Buckeye neighborhood this year and hopes to raise $13 million, with the lion’s share going to the costs of renovation and redevelopment. The organization has raised almost $2.5 million so far, Leek-Nelson said.
She said the large size of the new Buckeye building will allow Providence House to serve a wider group of families. There will be public access to the second floor of the Buckeye building, allowing families to seek out parent education or counseling there.
“We will be actually able to help families that don’t even have children in our nursery,” Leek-Nelson said.
She said Providence House aims to begin offering some services from the main building in the fall, breaking ground on a residential wing next spring.
