New facility to serve the Twin Cities area as a center of excellence in children’s mental health
THE PROJECT:
Washburn Center for Children (Washburn) is the leading mental health center in Minnesota, serving children from birth to age 18. Washburn has identified that one out of five children in Minnesota will experience mental health challenges, yet only 20% will get the help that they need. Many of these individuals will live with mental health challenges well into their adult years before being treated, although indicators present at childhood could have been addressed with early diagnosis and treatment.
Over the past six years, Washburn doubled the number of children served and could no longer accommodate the growing needs of the community. UFA structured the financing for the development of a new 55,000 square-foot, LEED Gold children’s mental health center to expand Washburn’s services and enhance its on-site clinician training and internship program. The design of Washburn’s new facility cultivates a healing environment to improve children’s mental health outcomes and provides Washburn’s staff and leading mental health clinicians with the necessary space and resources to conduct research and strengthen therapeutic services.
COMMUNITY IMPACTS:
- Create 225 construction jobs and 15 permanent jobs; Maintain 101 permanent jobs.
- Provide high-quality jobs that pay living wages and provide benefits, including: health insurance, ongoing job training for all staff to assure continued job effectiveness and retirement benefits.
- Serve over 2,700 children and approximately 7,200 family members annually, 55% of the patients are from low-income communities.
- Host 75 to 80 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students a year to receive training and clinical supervision through Washburn’s internship and practicum programs.
- Target hiring efforts to low-income persons or residents of low-income communities.
- On-going community stakeholder activities include consultation with the Harrison Neighborhood Association, the City of Minneapolis, the Regional Oversight Committee, Glenwood Sumner Neighborhood Association and Minneapolis City Council.
- Offset 14,245 metric tons of carbon dioxide.
KEY COMMUNITY DEMOGRAPHICS:
- Poverty Rate: 54.2%
- Median Family Income: 19.7% of benchmark
- Unemployment Rate: 2.06 times the national average
FINANCING:
- Total Project Cost: $25.6 million
- NCF Deployed Allocation: $11 million
- Total NMTC Allocation: $20.6 million
PROJECT PARTNERS:
- United Fund Advisors (National Community Fund I, LLC)
- U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corporation
- Capital City Properties (an affiliate of the Saint Paul Port Authority)
- Washburn Center for Children
