SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome, Boomer listeners. I'm Peggy Sweet and this is Belonging in the Bluffs, brought to you by the Iowa West Foundation. I'm joined in studio today with a new friend. I have James. He is the president and CEO of the Child Savings Institute. Welcome, James.

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

I'm excited to have you here, and you've got some exciting news to share with us today. So where would you like to start?

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Yeah, I think first, uh, you know, we assumed operations at the Children's Square campus last September. So we're excited to share with the listeners some exciting projects that are going to be taking shape uh on campus, some renovations.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

That's a great campus. It's beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

Yeah, I think if you haven't been by the Children's Square campus, swing by. It's got 140 plus years of history, and uh it is very quaint. And we're excited to get some of the facilities kind of up to speed and get some renovations underway.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

And are you going to be handling the same services that you did before?

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Yeah. All the services that we took over in September still exist. It's one uh service that we are looking to bring back to the campus, which is outpatient behavioral health. And we're hoping that through some of the renovations we can bring services back early part of next year. But the rest of it is just enhancement of facilities that uh need a little tender-loving care, like we all do.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

Absolutely. Uh, do you still have child care there?

SPEAKER_00 1:20

Childcare is no longer being operated. That service was discontinued at the end of, I believe, 2024. But the rest of the services we have PMIC, we operate a youth shelter. We have a program called Crisis Stabilization. Uh, we're supporting youth through aftercare services in Western Iowa. We have a program called Beehis, and of course, we have our Levine Learning Center on campus.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

When I was there, I was able to actually go into, is it called a cottage or where it's a whole family atmosphere?

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Yeah, so that's our PMAC cottages, absolutely. We have three cottages where we can serve up to uh 33 kids on campus, and those cottages were relatively new, built in the last uh 10 years. And so we're excited. You probably saw some other facilities that are a little bit older, and so uh we need to upgrade some HVAC and you know, kind of clean some things up. There's some facilities where water has been an issue as it relates to the history of the organization, where a flood brought uh the organization into existence. So uh again, we're excited to really start to breathe some life back into facilities and kind of imagine what the next 140 years looks like on campus.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

I'm looking very much forward to seeing that all of the renovations. I know that this sort of thing doesn't come easy. Uh it's time and it's money, and I know you received a grant from the Iowa West Foundation.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

Yeah, absolutely. I think Children's Square uh couldn't do the work great work it does without a lot of community partners, but Iowa West specifically has been a tremendous partner, and we're so excited to envision what the community needs on campus in partnership with Iowa West.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

And if we want to get more information about your services or how we can help, what is your website or how do we get a hold of you?

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Yeah, the website's the the best place, uh childsaving.org. And you can click get involved, you can click happenings to learn about our events and activities, or you can swing by our campus and check it out for yourself.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

Oh, yeah, I would love to come by and see as you, you know, I know construction uproots things and everything, but it's always interesting to see the before and the after. So I will probably do that.

SPEAKER_00 3:35

That would be great.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

James, thank you so much for stopping by today. Uh, I'd like to have you back real soon. I know you've got an event coming up. It's an important event. You're kind of combining a couple of things, and I want to get you back here to talk about that.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

That would be fantastic. We can't really can't wait to talk about our reimagined Jason Awards.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

I very much look forward to that conversation. Thanks so much, James. This has been Belonging in the Bluffs, brought to you by the Iowa West Foundation.