After three and a half years in the making, the nonprofit Lotus House celebrated the opening of Children's Village, an innovative children’s education and resource center in Overtown on Thursday.
Taking inspiration from the proverb “it takes a village to raise a child,” the center hosts more than dozen nonprofit organizations, boasting a behavioral therapy center, community health center and two private schools, among other programs. The Children’s Village hopes to serve about 2,500 children and families annually.
Constance Collins, the founder of Lotus House Women’s Shelter, said the new center will build on the services they have been providing at their facility across the street since 2018. It will help women and children reclaim their lives after violence.
She hopes the center will not only take on homelessness but prevent it.
“We know after many years that investing in children is the way in which we can break cycles of poverty and abuse and violence and homelessness,” Collins said.
A ribbon cutting ceremony for Children's Village's grand opening featured remarks from figures like state Senator Ileana Garcia and Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen, who is a Lotus House Board Member.
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Collins said most of the funding for Children’s Village was generated through private donations. While she pointed to county-level issues securing funding for the center, Collins expressed gratitude for Miami-Dade County and City of Miami support.
" The City of Miami has really stepped up for us on this project," Collins said. "They helped us with the permitting, expediting and bringing this project to completion as quickly as possible."
Amber Manker from the resource center Alliance for LGBTQ Youth, said the private investment provides services to children her and other queer staffers wish they had when they were younger.
“ It's a very special time for us to be in this space because we offer something for a specific group of young people that we don't see getting a lot of services throughout the county,” Manker said.
Through health and job readiness services, the center endeavors to set up children for success. Representatives of community health center Care 4 U said they seek to host programs like healthy eating workshops, physical education and age-appropriate sexual health education.
These programs aim to tackle health issues caused by factors like poverty and lack of education, which the World Health Organization refers to as social determinants of health.
" Health has an extreme role in not just supporting vulnerable youth, but supporting underserved communities overall," said Vanessa Mills, the Chief Executive Director of the Care 4 U. " What makes the Children's Village so powerful is [that] it connects all the different social determinants of health."
According to a report from Lotus House, Children's Village was built in Overtown, across the street from their shelter, to meet economic and social conditions that perpetuate poverty. The report said Overtown had the highest infant mortality rate and lowest life expectancy, citing miamidadematters.org and Miami-Dade county data.
" This facility embodies the collective impact vision of the historic Overtown community," Saliha Nelson, CEO of the Children's Village's middle school Urgent Academy. "[Lotus House's] team has brought this vision to life along with so many community partners who have galvanized to say, 'Wow, we're gonna activate this space.'"
Miami City Commissioner Christine King was among those celebrating the opening.
"I have been able been able to call on [Constance Collins] [when] I've had families that are homeless and she has never said no," King said. "It doesn't matter where you are in the City of Miami. If you're a woman in need with children, this is it."
