How Center for Transforming Lives’ new Fort Worth campus is prepared to serve more families
November 23,2024
See full Fort Worth Report article by David Moreno here.
Carol Klocek, CEO of Center for Transforming Lives, walked through an old concrete building in southeast Fort Worth as a group of more than 10 guests followed behind her.
The sounds of construction workers operating trucks and installing structural components filled the 68,000-square-foot building. Floor-to-ceiling windows filled the infrastructure with natural light — dust particles became noticeable.
Klocek stopped for a second to examine the renovations happening around her. She described the feeling that rushed through her body as joy.
After all, the building she was walking through is in the final months of construction before it becomes the new Center for Transforming Lives campus.
“There’s nothing more exciting than seeing a vision come to life and to know that something you dreamt of will impact so many lives in the community,” she said.
Center for Transforming Lives serves over 3,000 women and children annually and provides housing support, early childhood education, economic mobility services and counseling to help Tarrant County parents and children establish financial security. One in every three single mothers with a child under the age of 5 is living in poverty in Tarrant County, according to the organization.
The organization, a Fort Worth staple founded in 1907, has been headquartered downtown, at 512 W. 4th St., since 1955.
The five-story building, built in the late 1920s, first served as the headquarters for the Fort Worth Elks Lodge fraternity, according to Historic Fort Worth Inc. archives. The Center for Transforming Lives, then known as the Young Women’s Christian Association of Fort Worth and Tarrant County, later acquired it.
In recent years, Center for Transforming Lives has faced challenges in providing services due to a lack of space. The organization outgrew the building more than five years ago, Klocek said.
The building “was such a source of happiness and transformation for so many decades, but it hasn’t really served our purposes as we’ve grown to meet the need in the community,” she told the Report.
In early 2022, Center for Transforming Lives began formal talks to expand its capacity and looked toward adapting an old concrete building — formerly a Montgomery Ward building — at the corner of East Berry and South Riverside streets. The organization acquired the property and its 14-acre site before beginning a $40 million renovation project in 2023.
In August, Fort Worth City Council voted to purchase the organization’s historic building for $6.5 million with the intent to renovate it for a new downtown library branch in the future.
The primarily concrete building chosen for the center’s relocation lacked access to natural light. That made one of the first tasks of the renovation to demolish a rectangular portion in the middle of the structure in order to accommodate a design centered on an open air courtyard.
The Riverside campus will be home to early childhood education classrooms, therapy spaces for mothers and children, housing support services, commercial kitchens, a large playground and a child care center that will expand from its current 72 slots to 106.
The campus’s Economic Mobility Center will also offer small-business education, incubation and acceleration services for entrepreneurs to grow their companies. Those parents who use the center will have access to free drop-in child care, Klocek said.
The building will be able to support a 30% increase in the number of families served during the first year, according to a spokesperson with Center for Transforming Lives.
The center will move 119 permanent full-time jobs from its current building to the new space, with plans to add 52 positions in the first year.
One of the most important elements of the new campus, Klocek said, is its direct access to a Trinity Metro bus stop and a four-line bus transfer station. This will improve community access in an underserved area in southeast Fort Worth, she added.
Center for Transforming Lives’ new campus was designed by architecture firm Bennett Partners with an emphasis on trauma-informed care and a welcoming environment. Walls will be painted with soft colors, with interior design focused on integrating nature into the space.
Tausha Reid, director of Early Childhood Center Services at Center for Transforming Lives, is amazed at what the Riverside campus will offer families.
“It’s going to be accessible to single mothers and their children in such a way that they will be provided with everything they need under one roof … it’s awesome,” she said.
The new campus is slated for completion by the first quarter of 2025, with families set to begin receiving services immediately after.
David Moreno is the health reporter for the Fort Worth Report. His position is supported by a grant from Texas Health Resources. Contact him at david.moreno@fortworthreport.org or @davidmreports.
Disclosure: Bennett Partners has been a financial supporter of the Fort Worth Report. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.