Bethany for Children & Families has a new headquarters. Christina McNamara, Director of Development and Communications says the organization made the move because an increase in need led to an increase in staff.
“Bethany has outgrown its location in downtown Moline on Sixth Avenue,” she said. “We have been in that building for over 20 years and it has served us very well. There are very pervasive issues in our community that affect vulnerable populations, such as homelessness, poverty and mental illness, and we’re doing the best that we can to serve these folks that need our help. Because of that, we have hired over 23 staff members in the last year, and we have outgrown that facility. We have transitioned our staff to the Caxton Block building on River Drive.
About half of the staff has moved into the new location and the rest will move in the next couple of weeks. Services won’t be disrupted during the move and McNamara says they hope to have an open house later this year.
“Coordinating the needs of at-risk children and families is a complex process and it’s very valuable for us to be housed under one roof. For example, there may be a new foster care client and that case manager can walk down the hall in this building, maybe get them access to our after-school programming, possibly get the biological parents into parenting programming, so we can really deliver services efficiently in this new arrangement. Bethany offers 25 programs and services to serve at risk children and families. We began as an orphanage but now we offer 25 programs and services to surround and support children, to keep them safe and to keep families together. We think the new facility will make us more efficient and we can better serve our clients in this arrangement.”
McNamara says Bethany has plans for expanding in their new location to connect residents in need with more valuable services. “We would like to develop a social service corridor in Moline and possibly connect our Sixth Avenue facility and the Caxton Block building facility,” she said. “We are not using the entire space in the new building, so we would like other nonprofits to join us in the mission of creating a social service corridor. That way, many generations of families with similar needs could get services in in one single location.”
For more information on Bethany for Children & Families and the services they provide, click here.
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