Crittenton Services Announces Millions in Grants During ‘Paint the Town Pink’ Gala
Derek Redd Trending
Along with a dinner provided by Chef & Company and the opportunity to gaze into the cosmos with Robert and Libby Strong of SMART Centre Wheeling, there were plenty of reasons to celebrate at Crittenton Services' Paint the Town Pink gala -- most importantly the announcement of millions of dollars in grants to help the organization expand its services.
Near the start of the gala at Waterfront Hall, Crittenton CEO Ashleigh Parker told those in attendance that the organization secured a pair of grants, one through U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito and another through Aetna Better Health of West Virginia.
The grant through Capito totals $3.042 million and will be used to build two new cottage-style homes on the Crittenton campus. The total of the Aetna grant was not announced, but it will fund the renovation of an existing home to support adolescent girls presenting with mental health needs and co-occurring autism spectrum disorder.
Parker said both the new homes and remodeled home are very necessary. Right now, Crittenton can serve up to 32 adolescent girls and 10 babies. The new homes will allow Crittenton to serve more than 50 girls.
"This is really going to enable us to increase our census but, just beyond that census, it's going to help us expand to the entire community and to the entire state," Parker said. "We're finding that hundreds of children are being sent out of state for their residential needs. Even if we can help just an additional 10 girls have housing within our facilities, that's really going to make a major difference."
The renovated home is just as needed, Parker said, because of the lack of availability of such specialized housing in West Virginia.
"We know that with the new state regulations, there are going to be a lot of changes that are happening within the behavioral health field and with the providers all across the state," she said. "Currently, there are about 300 adolescent kids that are actually being sent out of state because of their disorders and not being able to find a placement in West Virginia, residential providers.
"So we absolutely know that there is a need," she continued. "We already have been treating adolescent women who have autism spectrum disorder. So we know that there's going to continue to be that need."
The proceeds from Saturday's gala went to funding Crittenton's day-to-day operations, Patrons were able to participate in a silent auction and a raffle for a $2,500 vacation travel voucher. They also had the chance to view other areas of the solar system like Jupiter and its moons, courtesy of the Strongs and their telescopes, as the gala's theme was "Reach for the Stars."
Saturday was Parker's first gala as Crittenton's CEO, and she was over the moon to see a packed house for the event.
"I really think that that kind of speaks for itself as far as how the community just truly comes together," she said, "and how many people actually do support Crittenton and the mission and the vision that we're trying to achieve."
The organization also announced that 10% of the proceeds from the silent auction would go to House of the Carpenter for flood relief.