Image: The Landmark Center’s rooftop garden
With a mission of breaking the cycle of homelessness and poverty for families and children, ForKids has been empowering families to overcome the complex challenges of homelessness since 1988. To help families gain stability and thrive, ForKids works in three primary areas: housing, critical services, and educational interventions. Today, ForKids assists over 75,000 individuals annually in fourteen cities and counties in Southeastern Virginia. With a commitment to tangible results, ForKids tracks over 50 unique performance measures to ensure the effective, efficient use of resources. On average, 89% of their families attain housing and 92% of their children advance to the next grade.
To support and expand ForKids’ vision of building pathways out of poverty for homeless and unstably housed families, ForKids opened the Landmark Center in 2021 after a 6-year capital and building campaign. The state-of-the-art facility utilizes trauma-informed design to provide a calm and welcoming environment for families and staff.
The 64,000-square-foot, modern mixed-use complex replaces inefficient, outdated buildings and improves client access to public transit and regional highways. With over 150 windows, live plants, natural wood, a soft paint pallet, and 500+ works of art, the trauma-informed building creates a calm and welcoming environment for families and staff alike. Eight exterior murals create an “art district” for the community and share the joy and potential of their children. Sustainable building practices including natural lighting, daylight harvesting, and high-efficiency systems reduce operating costs while creating healthier spaces for families and staff.
The building’s design more than doubles ForKids’ emergency shelter capacity and provides much-needed flexibility to accommodate large families. Connecting doors, trundles, and bunk beds accommodate families of all sizes. Family living spaces include a small dining table and a kitchenette with a sink, microwave, mini- fridge, and separate sleeping areas to humanely and comfortably accommodate families during a stressful time.
Trauma-informed counseling rooms overlook children’s play areas to allow parents the ability to speak frankly and confidentially with their support team while keeping a close eye on their children. Community rooms provide pleasant places for recreation and group activities, as well as digital access for both adults and children.
The 4,000 sq. ft. rooftop garden is a cheerful space for children and families in shelter to gather and play. Planted by the Virginia Cooperative Extension and Chesapeake Master Gardeners, planters overflow with blueberry and blackberry bushes, mint, thyme, garlic, lettuce, peas, squash, and more, increasing accessibility to fresh food and providing the backbone for organizational nutritional programming. Families can enjoy a picnic-style meal on 2 tables and chairs or just relax on benches. The rooftop is fenced for safety and overhead canopies provide shade.
The Department of Forestry joined with ForKids to plant an Urban Orchard, which includes thirty-one trees around the site. In addition, with trees, café tables, and views of children’s artwork along the outside of the building, a micro park near the entrance to the building is a special space for community members to gather.
The Birdsong Café provides a welcoming space for families in shelter and children in after-school programming to enjoy nutritious meals. A “grab-n-go” provides healthy snacks and late-plates for working parents. The kitchen is also equipped with a teaching island for cooking classes for ForKids families.
The Batten Learning Hub triples previous capacity for after-school programming in five bright, joyful classrooms and four individual tutoring rooms. State-of-the-art technology includes Chromebooks and portable charging carts, smartboards, a STEM lab with 3D printer, and robot and coding kits. Two “maker spaces” help children build 21st-century skills through project-based learning. The Landmark Center also houses an expanded 24-seat call center for the Housing Crisis Hotline serving 14 cities and counties in Southeastern Virginia. Responding to more than 70,000 calls annually, their Hotline team can monitor call volume and service levels on large-screen active call boards.
SOUTH NORFOLK:
Now a borough of the City of Chesapeake, South Norfolk was an independent city with its own mayor, police and fire departments, public library, and school system. In 1963, South Norfolk merged with Norfolk County to form the City of Chesapeake. This was a turning point for the community. Tax dollars and residents went to newly developing areas, businesses closed, and South Norfolk’s busy Poindexter Street grew quiet.
Residents of South Norfolk were determined to return their historic community to its former glory. The South Norfolk and Southside Civic Leagues, Neighborhood Watch, Revitalization Commission and members of the community have accomplished much: a new streetscape with historic streetlights, popular community events with weekly food trucks, a new library and newly developed housing. They simply lacked a major employer on Poindexter Street.
South Norfolk community members worked tirelessly in support of ForKids to gain City Council approval for the sale of the land on which to build the center and for funding the project’s infrastructure. Today, the Landmark Center sits on the former site of the South Norfolk Library which now resides in a new facility next door. With more than 130 ForKids employees and hundreds of volunteers providing new energy to the community, new restaurants and shops are opening on historic Poindexter Street.
IMPACT:
Having a safe place to live gives families a chance to recover and regroup while they develop a plan for long-term housing and family stability. Families moved from Haven House, ForKids’ emergency shelter since 1988, to Sokol Place in May 2021, and their reactions to the new space were heartwarming. One mom, who had been living in her car and bunking with friends cried happy tears as her young daughter played with toys she found in the room saying, “This place makes me feel human.” The Landmark Center 3 will connect more than 85,000 individuals annually to services and be the nexus of ForKids’ work to create solutions for poverty and homelessness.
Click here to tour the Landmark Center.
For more information about ForKids and their work, check out these news stories:
ForKids rooftop orchard provides relief for families in need.