Children's Advocacy Center Breaks Ground on New Hope House

SAN ANGELO, TX – On a windy Monday afternoon the Children’s Advocacy Center broke ground on its newest endeavor, the Children’s Advocacy Center of Greater West Texas. During the outdoor event, Chief Development Officer Justin DeLoach welcomed every in attendance as everyone awaited the much-anticipated groundbreaking

“We are so excited you are with us,” said DeLoach. “Whether you are giving financially, whether you are giving through service through your jobs or through your organizations, or any welfare organization that serves a child; the CAC is grateful for you today.”

Nearly thirty years after its inception, all programs in the Children’s Advocacy Center will once again be housed in the same building. The Children’s Advocacy Center is currently spread across a variety of locations that house CASA, Hope House, Family Enrichment Services and the Child Fatality Review Team.

Watch: Children's Advocacy Center Breaks Ground on New Hope House

“On behalf of the Board of Directors and staff of the Children’s Advocacy Center of Greater West Texas I welcome you to this milestone day,” said James Skinner, Board Member and Capital Campaign Chairman for this project. “Last year we embarked on creating a vision and future for the CAC to bring our now four locations under one campus.”

The building known previously as Town and Country Plaza will be renovated and redesigned to fit the needs of the CAC. The property provided the Children’s Advocacy Center with office space that was available and had an undeveloped land that could house the new Hope House building.

“For the last four years we have experienced unprecedented growth. This growth has allowed us to see for the first time the true scope of child abuse in our community,” said Heather Ward, Chief Executive Officer of the Children’s Advocacy Center. “As a community and as an organization, we had to change the way we serve children.”

Having a centralized location will allow the staff at the CAC to have the opportunity to focus more on the children they serve and increase assistance to families in rural areas. The renovations of the T&C Plaza and the construction of the new building are made possible by the donations of several project underwriters. Those donors were honored at the event alongside community partners who helped bring the project to fruition. The office space will be open to families in the Fall of 2020. The new Hope House will be in operation by the fall of 2021.

The project is being directed by Brent Sparks, principal of the HKS office in Fort Worth, the architectural company that will be designing the office space and new building. Every year HKS donates one percent of their billable hours to pro-bono projects. Sparks, as well as two other members of HKS, have roots in the city; they grew up in San Angelo and are happy to give back to the community.

Project underwriters, donors, and students from Cornerstone Schools were invited to turn over the first pile of dirt in the ground-breaking. Cornerstone students often volunteer with the Children’s Advocacy Center. Special guests also included Representative Drew Darby and Mayor Brenda Gunter.

After the main attraction of the event, attendees were invited to join CAC for refreshments. The new Hope House building will be completed in 2021.