City's Family Room Program Looking for a New Home

The city program that provides family support to about 500 Lakewood families each month may have to find a new home. 

City officials say they were notified last week that the Family Room — part of the city’s — had 30 days to vacate the Weigand Center at the St. James facility on Northwood Avenue.

The city leased the space, rent-free, for the past 18 years.

The Lakewood Family Room provides family resources and support programs that serve parents raising young children, their children and families with a variety of programs and environments.

Mayor Michael Summers said he negotiated with Cleveland Catholic Charities — which leases the building — for more time to find a new location. The city must either work out a deal with CCC or leave the space by Dec. 31.

“We’re looking for a new home," he said. "We have every expectation to continue this service, but we’ve got to find a new home.”

Carolyn Schuemann, the chief financial officer of Cleveland Catholic Charities, said the organization is talking with the city to work it out.

“We’re not kicking them out,” she said. 

The space cannot be rented out for free any longer, Schuemann said, but declined to say how much it would cost for the city to stay.

She said the other tenant, the , is also leaving the space — which was a former nunnery for the .

Summers said the city is scouting other locations, including the , which has offered at least a temporary home.

“Every avenue is one the table,” he said. “We’ve got our work cut out for us."

According to the city’s website, the program serves several purposes:

• Provides direct services to families that may include, but are not limited to parent education, support groups, parent/child activities, resources and referral, time and stress management and more.
• Builds on the family's strengths rather than deficits.
• Enhances the capacity of parents to foster the optimal development of their children.
• Respects the integrity of the family unit.
• Fosters cultural, ethnic and religious sensitivity.
• Provides linkages within Lakewood to other systems of services and support.
• Provides comfortable settings and opportunities in which parents can work on family issues.