Ground has been broken on a new 12,500 square-foot health and wellness center at
Lakeside for Children.
Classrooms, a multipurpose room, a regulation-size high school athletic court, and lockers will all be part of the new building. Funds from the $2.3 million fundraising campaign "Sound Mind. Sound Body" will go toward construction of the new center.
"This new center will help us provide essential health and wellness programming to our growing population of teens, ages 12 to 18," says Amy Upjohn, honorary campaign co-chair. "Countless studies demonstrate that fitness and wellness combined with quality classroom experiences and counseling greatly helps at-risk students to recover and progress toward a healthy future."
With the new center students at Lakeside for Children will take a big step toward a healthy future, she adds.
Miller-Davis will provide construction management for the center designed by Eckert- Wordell Architects. The new center replaces a small, outmoded gymnasium that was built in the 1960s for a smaller group of elementary school aged children.
The 48-acre Lakeside for Children campus on Oakland Drive in Kalamazoo has been a residential setting for troubled children for more than 100 years. One of the oldest social service agencies in Kalamazoo County, Lakeside currently serves more than 120 at-risk boys and girls, ages 12 to 18 in a residential setting.
Lakeside officials say students learn "vital life skills and behaviors in a caring and hope-filled supportive environment."
Young people are referred to Lakeside through the juvenile justice system and human service agencies in Michigan and several other states, Lakeside students live in family-style cottages and attend year-round school at Lakeside Academy, a strict-discipline charter school authorized by Kalamazoo Regional Educational Services Agency and located on the Lakeside campus.
Education at Lakeside is conducted in partnership with Sequel Youth and Family Services and its curriculum is designed to meet the behavioral and emotional needs of its students.
Source: Lakeside for Children
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.