Kairos nets $450K grant for new children mental health campus - Daily Courier

Date: April 30, 2014

The Kairos program for at- risk youths have been awarded a $450,000 grant from the Ann & Bill Swindells Charitable Trust to help finance construction of its new Children’s Mental Health Campus in Grants Pass.

Formerly called the Southern Oregon Adolescent Study and Treatment Center, Kairos is a Grants Pass-based   program for children and young adults with severe behavioral problems.

Kairos said in a news release the Swindells Trust, of Portland, was specifically interested in the 15-bed psychiatric residential facility under construction on Kairos’ new campus at 1750 Nebraska Ave.

The 12,000-square-foot facility will be for children suffering mental and behavioral emergencies.  Kairos CEO Bob Lieberman said it will be unique for its secure crisis unit, and to prevent children from showing up at hospitals that aren’t equipped for such needs.

The campus also has a recently completed 7,300-square- foot Community Services Building for administration, foster-care training and other programs.

In its release, nonprofit Kairos also announced it’s launching a capital campaign to help finance construction of the 2-acre, $4.5 million campus.

A key factor for supporters was the potential for contributions from northern Oregon, the release said.

In addition to local financing from Evergreen Federal Bank, Kairos recently received $275,000 from the Ford Family Foundation in Roseburg, $350,000 from the Meyer Memorial Trust in Portland and $250,000 from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust in Vancouver, Wash.

 For more information about Kairos or the capital campaign, see www.kairosnw.org or call the program’s development manager, Mary Lynne DeRocher, at 542-956-4943, ext. 1116.

 The organization changed its name from SOASTC to Kairos — Greek for “the moment when change is possible” — in 2012.