A non-profit group focused on assisting young people hopes to expand its services with the construction of a donation center.
Officials with Good Samaritan Boys Ranch Foundation are asking the City of Springfield to rezone almost an acre of property adjacent to the group’s transitional group home in Springfield. With the rezoning and a conditional use permit, the group hopes to build a drop-off center and warehouse to hold donated furniture.
Colby Wallace, a representative for the foundation, said that the center would hold couches, tables, dressers and other important furniture items for program participants who are moving into their first home. Usually people fill their first homes with hand-me-downs from family, a support system people in foster care don’t have, he said.
“You want that first place to be a home, not a cold cave,” Wallace said during the Springfield City Council’s June 5 meeting. “If this is approved, then when they age out, they will have a home designed to their liking, a lease in their name and self confidence to walk into life on their own.”
Good Samaritan Boys Ranch Foundation offers support services to abused or neglected children. Started in 1959 as an orphanage, it now operates transitional group homes in Springfield for boys and in Willard for girls, as well as a family services office in Springfield and a 180-acre ranch in Brighton.
The foundation is asking the City Council to approve two measures:
- Rezoning about .85 acres located at 504 E. Norton Road from single-family to multi-family use. The plot is located directly east of the group’s transitional home at 422 E. Norton Road.
- Approving a conditional-use permit that would allow the donation center to operate within the multi-family zoning.
The building would be used as a drop-off center capable of accepting donations from the public, according to documentation provided by the city. Participants in the group’s transitional program would be able to shop through the donated items and make selections for their first home.
The center would also include a small office and off-street parking. A 20-foot wide buffer yard would be placed on the property’s eastern edge, as well as a 6-foot privacy fence, according to documentation.
Wallace told the council on June 5 that the home helps 10 youth a year move into their transitional homes, whether it is a group home or apartment. More than 1,000 youth have been served through all of the foundation’s programs since 1999, including foster care, school-based counseling, in-home services and the Good Samaritan Boys Ranch.
The council will consider the rezoning for final approval at an upcoming meeting June 26.
