With Renovations Complete, A Kid's Place Feels More Like Home

BRANDON, FL — Hillsborough County and A Kid's Place celebrated the completion of a major renovation project that improves the nonprofit's Brandon campus for foster children.

By maintaining the living and administrative spaces through general renovations, the facility is able to offer a welcoming atmosphere for foster kids. This is especially important when children are under severe stress and need a sense of safety and security in their surroundings.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Wednesday to celebrate the renovations. Under the shade of the surrounding trees, Beth Bradburn, vice chair of A Kid's Place, spoke about the need to give resident foster kids hope and the tools to succeed.

"They're going to grow into trees like this. And those trees will shed future seeds that maybe break the cycle and really provide long-term positive influences for our community. And so, renovating their homes, giving them a safe place where they feel welcomed, that's what these kids get here. To give them that, it's amazing," she said.

The county contributed more than $340,000 for the A Kid's Place Foster Care and Aging Out Home Rehabilitation project. Renovations included the installation of new windows, new cabinets for kitchens and laundry rooms, and new countertops in five foster care houses.

A new roof at the aging-out facility was also completed, as well as interior painting, renovations to the kitchen and bathroom, and new flooring installed throughout the building.

Upgrades to the flooring in the administrative building and classrooms were also part of the much-needed makeover.

A Kid's Place provides residential services to infants, children and young people up to the age of 17 who have been removed from their homes due to abuse, neglect or abandonment. The nonprofit provides a variety of services to meet the social, educational, medical and psychological needs of the children and young adults in their extended foster care homes.

The organization's primary focus is to keep siblings together in a safe, stable, home-like environment until a more permanent placement can be provided.

The facility's campus on Lithia-Pinecrest Road in Brandon sprawls over 5 acres, providing a peaceful, neighborhood setting for its temporary residents. The five homes that make up A Kid's Place can provide housing for 60 foster kids at a time.

Since opening in 2009, more than 1,487 foster children and over 648 families have been served by the community initiative.

A Kid's Place was founded by the late Hillsborough County Commissioner Dottie Berger who also founded the Joshua House in Lutz for foster children, Friends of Joshua House Foundation and Kids Charity of Tampa Bay with the Yob Family Foundation.