Child welfare board getting roomier digs

The Hays County Child Protective Board’s “Rainbow Room” will have a new home soon. At its Tuesday meeting, the Hays County Commissioners Court heard a presentation from the board before approving a measure allowing the board’s care and supply center to move into the former WIC office at 401 Broadway Street.

Board member Karen Brown spoke to the commissioners about the Child Protective Board’s mission.

“Our vision is to promote a safe environment for all Hays County children, not just the children that are in CPS (Child Protective Services) care,” she said.

The board does serve as an extension of the court where CPS cases are involved, she said, and its volunteers and facilities provide services for children in CPS care that state and federal services don’t provide. The board also works on educating the public about child abuse and neglect and how to prevent them so children don’t have to end up in CPS custody.

“We’re volunteers,” she said. “We’re all volunteers that serve at your will.”

Brown also spoke of the inadequate space at the Child Protective Board’s current facility.

“We have known for years that it’s terribly inadequate,” she said. 

Brown noted that the board has 610 square feet to store and display goods needed by children and families. There is insufficient space for caseworkers to bathe children who are removed on an emergency basis. There is also no room in storage for large donations.

“We cannot take donations … for example, beds that are needed,” Brown said. “We are offered donations of hundreds of diapers that are needed, and we have no place to put them.”

In 2017, Brown said, Brenda and Kaare Remme offered $100,000 and the services of an architect to improve the Rainbow Room. Child Protective Board member Mary Cauble said that after that, the board began plans and consultations on how to proceed and looked at possible sites for a new facility. The Village, a facility grouping numerous social services together that just opened last week, was considered as a possible location but ended up being cost and time prohibitive.

“The primary stumbling block is that the area they designated for us requires a road to be built to it,” Cauble said, “and we really felt that put it out of our reach financially, as well as time.”

The county commissioners court gave support to the board in the form of a $100,000 pledge, and Precinct 2 Commissioner Mark Jones helped secure a $25,000 grant to help fund a new facility, Cauble said, before the board decided to work with Precinct 1 Commissioner Debbie Gonzales Ingalsbe to find a suitable site on county property. 

Cauble said the board is requesting the use of two county buildings at 401 Broadway. The new facility would give the board 3,100 square feet initially, with the possibility of expanding to 3,800 square feet of space. Cauble said the space will be renovated for security, storage, child care and administration. It will include a bathroom with a tub and shower, and laundry facilities, as well as more storage space for supplies and a chance to organize supplies better so that caseworkers can find what they need more easily.

“It will offer many improvements in the care the children receive,” Cauble said.

Ingalsbe said she felt the relocation would enhance the care that children in need can receive.

“We are doing a great service not only to the organization but to the children they serve in Hays County,” she said.

The relocation passed unanimously.