Monday, December 8, 2014

Arizona’s Children Association Tucson Headquarters Moving

Tucson office move will accommodate growth and increase cross-utilization of programs by clientele


Arizona’s Children Association’s five-year strategic plan to improve services and better utilize resources has led the leadership and Board to the decision to move their various programs from around the Tucson metropolitan area to one location.  The move will accommodate the growth of the many programs throughout Tucson as well as incorporate the many agencies with whom Arizona’s Children Association has merged over the years, including The Parent Connection, KARE and Las Familias.  Until now, as Arizona’s Children Association programs have expanded it was natural that multiple physical sites became home to different programs. Foster care services would be available at one location, while parenting classes were a few miles away. Behavioral health services were even further up the road. In addition to the disconnect that resulted between the programs being geographically separated, the agency has struggled with space restraints at the Tucson Corporate campus on 8th Ave.
 
This month, Arizona’s Children Association will move to its new location, near the intersection of Ajo Way and Alvernon (3716 E. Columbia Street, Suite 120, Tucson, AZ 85714).  The new site will allow these programs and their clientele to connect in ways that Arizona’s Children has never been able to provide before – the same client can receive multiple services at the same site, expanding their knowledge and usage of the many services available in the process.

Unfortunately, this great opportunity comes with a bittersweet departure from the very building that Arizona’s Children Association has called home since 1921. Mrs. Minnie Davenport first proposed the organization of a Children’s Home in May of 1912. On November 27, 1914, Mrs. Julia Attix donated 7.5 acres of her homestead for the purpose of constructing a permanent home to serve the children in Arizona. The land donation was not fully executed until the organization raised enough funds to begin design and construction of the home. In November 1921, that location, which is now affectionately known as “Angel House” in appreciation of support from Angel Charities, opened as a home for up to sixty neglected and orphaned children.
With so much history, the staff and leadership are sad to be leaving the original Children’s Home location. However, over the last century, the agency has been able to provide a myriad of programs and services to thousands of children and their families from that location and they intend to expand that legacy through the new facility. The campus in Tucson will transfer ownership later this month.
An open house was held in early December to officially
“pass the keys” to Pasadera’s CEO Chuck Burbank.

The new owners for the Tucson main campus, Pasadera Behavioral Health Network, adore the campus. Pasadera is the merged entity of SAMHC and Compass Behavioral Health. It gives them the opportunity to bring multiple sites onto one - similar to Arizona’s Children Association, but at a smaller scale.

"We intend to continue the tradition that Arizona’s Children Association began and sustained for more than 100 years to be good stewards of the land, the buildings, the city of South Tucson, and the greater community,” said CEO Chuck Burbank of Pasadera.
 
 
To learn more about AzCA’s history, visit us online at www.ArizonasChildren.org.