by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
Years of planning and waiting will finally be recognized soon when the Jacksonville Children’s Commission moves into its new headquarters on downtown’s edge.
The building is on the corner of First Street and A. Philip Randolph Boulevard and commission Executive Director Linda Lanier said the expected late April move into the $8.5 million facility is both greatly needed and long overdue.
Ground was broken on the project nearly two years ago.
Today, the more than 45,000-square foot facility is mostly populated with construction crews and building materials. Nails and lumber rest where books and computers soon will.
As she walks through the site, Lanier looks only to the future when she says programs will be developed there and problems for underprivileged children solved.
“We really are very excited about our new building for so many reasons,” she said. “Aside from all of the space we’re going to be getting, it’s so much closer to the families we work with. We’re going to be bigger and better.”
Lanier said almost of all of the approximately 140 employees will be making the move out of its current Church Street headquarters. They’ve been housed there since the organization was founded in 1994.
“We’ve been doing the absolute best we can given the difficulties of being where we are,” she said. “After we get settled, it’s going to be our goal to make our new headquarters a model facility where we can develop and implement best practices.”
Housed there, she said, will be administrative and grant writing offices, a state-of-the-art child care center and the
Don Brewer Early Learning Research and Development Center.
Named for the late City Council member, the latter will work with children from birth through 5 years old to promote preschool readiness and literacy.
Lanier said up to 98 children can be accommodated there.
“There is the potential to do so much good at the center,” Lanier said. “And, again, being where it is, we can recruit from right out of the neighborhoods we’re surrounded by.”
Lanier said the Brewer Center will also double as a laboratory where University of North Florida staff, students and other child care professionals can observe child behaviors, developments and programs there.
“I can’t begin to tell you how wonderful it is going to be when we move in,” Lanier said. “We’ve had to be patient but I know it will be worth it to everyone.”
The commission provides various services to approximately 10,000 children in Jacksonville, making available information and materials to parents and promoting educational programs both inside and outside of the
classroom.