Now, when law enforcement or the Department of Social Services must remove children from a home in Columbus County, they will have a more local haven for them to stay while other relatives or a foster parent can be found.
Boys & Girls Homes of North Carolina’s Solomon Assessment Center will have a ribbon cutting and re-opening at 9 a.m. June 30 at the nonprofit’s Lake Waccamaw campus.
Solomon is the first emergency youth shelter in Columbus County. Event attendees can take a tour of the Solomon Assessment Center and enjoy refreshments as well.
“Without Boys and Girls Homes’ emergency shelter, Columbus County kids were having to be transported to other parts of the state just to have a safe place to go to bed that night,” said Marc Murphy, BGHNC’s President and CEO.
The center had been closed for a year for renovations and staffing. Solomon was opened in 2002 to fill the need for an emergency youth shelter in the county.
At its re-opening, Solomon will have 10 beds available for youth who need a place to live during a time of crisis for their family.
“This reopening will benefit all of our partners, including law enforcement, the Department of Social Services and mental health agencies,” said BGHNC Chief Residential Officer Erika Brown. “In cases where parents are being arrested, when abuse and neglect are involved or maybe a kiddo had to be removed from their foster care placement for various reasons, any time of the night or day, the Solomon Assessment Center will become an immediate option for placement.”
The Solomon Assessment Center can provide shelter and stability for a child for 30 to 90 days. Once admitted, BGHNC staff will assess the child, determining “if they are a fit for our residential campus, one of our BGHNC foster or therapeutic foster care homes, or if they require a higher level of care. Those next steps will be determined while they are at the Assessment Center,” Brown added.
“We know it’s so important to keep kids near their community,” Murphy said, “and having this shelter allows kids to stay close to their schools and their families.”
