Crossroads Early Childhood Services Center (Photo courtesy of Herschman Architects)

Creating Crossroads
Generosity and resourceful collaboration meet paths at remodeled children's center

By Jeanne Bluffstone

It took nearly two years and a mighty collaboration of staff, volunteers, government and the city of Painesville to locate, purchase and transform what had been a lumber company showroom into the new Crossroads Early Childhood Services Center at 1083 Mentor Ave.
The new facility enables Crossroads, a non-profit organization providing behavioral health services to children, adolescents and families, to expand and consolidate services for children up to age five. The services previously had been split among three facilities in Painesville and Mentor.

Mike Crislip, president of Crossroads board of directors and president of Herschman Architects (HA), says when Crossroads first began to offer the Early Head Start program (now part of the Early Childhood Services Center), the program shared space in a Painesvile church and then relocated to the basement of a building.

“It was one of the better performing Crossroads programs and needed new space,” Crislip says. Wayne Lindstrom, the chief executive officer of Crossroads was interested in potential ownership of a new facility and asked Crislip to look at several possibilities in the area since most of the people being served were from the city of Painesville.

To read the rest of this article, download the July 2010 issue of Properties Magazine now. [July 2010; download PDF; 11.9 mb]