Youth Residential
Reimagining How We Care for Young People in Crisis
In 2025, we reached a defining moment with the opening of The Centers’ H.O.P.E. Campus®—a place where Healing, Optimism, Partnership, and Enrichment come to life. More than just a facility for youth residential treatment, the campus embodies our commitment to care without conditions and the belief that everyone deserves the opportunity to thrive. This transformational milestone reflects not only the evolution of our services, but the strength of the community that surrounds and supports us.
For over 100 years, Cleveland Christian Home served our area’s most vulnerable children by providing a safe and loving home for children who had nowhere else to go. Today, The Centers’ H.O.P.E. Campus® is a comprehensive behavioral health facility that provides Youth Residential Treatment and emergency housing and support for youth in Northeast Ohio who have been displaced in the child welfare system. The H.O.P.E. Campus provides a continuum of quality care; access to education, health services, and skill-building; and promotion of self- confidence and independence, all in a safe, therapeutic environment. A true community collaboration, The Centers’ H.O.P.E. Campus® is
building an integrated community of care to support children and families with prevention, treatment, stabilization, and long-term healing.
2025 Executive Summary: By the Numbers
73
youth were admitted into our safe, therapeutic, residential care
Youth in our care spent a total of
4,070
nights in a safe, trauma-informed environment
Successfully discharged
76%
of youth to permanent placements
Decreased average length of stay by
16
days since 2023 (44 days to 28 days)
Capital Updates
By October 2025, all residential units were completely renovated and transformed into safe, trauma‑informed living spaces for the young people we serve. Beginning in April 2026, the H.O.P.E. Campus will open our newly renovated residential treatment beds to multiple additional Northeast Ohio counties, further increasing access to trauma-informed care for youth who have urgent and complex placement needs. At year-end, our capital campaign was 85% togoal of $14M.
Renovations of the Education and Enrichment Wing are currentlyunderway, with completion expected by Summer 2026, creatingupdated spaces for learning, recreation, and skill‑building. Adedicated project manager will lead monthly steering committeemeetings with key Welcome Center community partners in 2026 to ensure a sustainable, comprehensive model is established to support each youth and family when the Welcome Center opens in January 2027.
In 2025, the H.O.P.E. Campus focused on the following:
- Crisis Response: Launched and trained our crisis response team for safer, quicker, and more coordinated support and intervention.
- Clinical Depth: Deepened our Therapeutic Crisis Intervention practices to support both youth and staff.
- Focus & Alignment: Implemented priorities to ensure focus, clarity, direction, and alignment across the campus.
- Internal Collaboration: Strengthened collaboration across nursing, clinical, case management, psychiatry, and programs.
- Program Development: Started building the Welcome Center model with system partners, a major step in transforming placement crisis support.
- Education: Grew enrichment programming and designed the foundation for our Learning and Education Advancement Program (LEAP).
Stories of Hope
“The Centers’ H.O.P.E. Campus® – Healing, Optimism,Partnership, and Enrichment – is more than a name. Itrepresents a promise: to ensure every child has a safeplace to land, to heal, and to envision a better future. Incollaboration with Cuyahoga County and more than 20agency partners, we are advancing a national model oftrauma-informed, community-embedded care thatprioritizes rapid reunification, kinship diversion, andhealing-centered programming.”
-Dawnya Underwood, Executive Director
Every year, the Cleveland Cavaliers’ coaching staff and surprise team members host a holiday party for youth. This event is an annual highlight, offering a vital space for connection. The coaches provide food and gifts, but their dedicated time and attention are what the children value most. Through competitive games andshared laughter, the Cavaliers staff make every child feel celebrated. The Centers is deeply grateful for its ongoing partnership with the Cavaliers coaches, the entire organization, and the Cavaliers Community Foundation.
We held a groundbreaking event on April 11 to mark the start of major renovations to transform the Cleveland Christian Home into the new H.O.P.E. Campus. In collaboration with Cuyahoga County Office of the Executive, Department of Children and Family Services, Board of Developmental Disabilities, Juvenile Justice, and numerous other external stakeholders, this event kicked off our major capital renovation and transformation project. The ambitious goal for the H.O.P.E. Campus is to provide a central location where DCFS staff and child-serving nonprofits can work in lockstep to get at-risk youth ages 12-18 into their best placement as quickly as possible, assisting with rapid reunification and kinship diversion while providing a safe location where youth awaiting placement can be assessed and receive treatment.
Our Sparks of HOPE fundraiser event on September 18 raised over $150,000 for the H.O.P.E. Campus, surpassing our goal thanks to our incredible donors and corporate funders. With over 200 guests in attendance on a beautiful early fall evening in Ohio City, it was an inspirational night that proved that Sparks of HOPE are contagious and can truly blaze a trail for a brighter, healthier future for children who belong to our community.
