A viewer shared this story with Douglas County reporter Lily O'Shea Becker at KSHB 41's Let's Talk event in Lawrence. If you have a story idea for Lily, please send her an email at lilyoshea.becker@kshb.com.
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The O'Connell Children's Shelter (OCS) in Lawrence entered its next chapter of serving Kansas children in crisis on Thursday after the groundbreaking of Elsie's Place.
Elsie's Place is located on the O'Connell Youth Ranch in southeast Lawrence and will house community resources for children and families in need and add three youth crisis beds to the state of Kansas by June 2026.
Renovations have already begun on the building that was the original homestead of Elsie O'Connell. She donated her family's home and the surrounding land for this exact cause in 1975, says Gina Meier-Hummel, executive director of O'Connell Children's Shelter.
"She had a very specific vision that young people needed stability in their lives and they needed a place to grow and they needed the land in order to thrive," Meier-Hummel said.
In 1978, the first house on the ranch was opened with the intention of giving young men "security and stability by providing a structured and loving home life in a clean, healthy rural setting," according to the O'Connell Children's Shelter website.
Local families turn to the O'Connell Children's Shelter when their child is experiencing a mental health crisis. The shelter offers temporary housing and services and works with other community, state and child welfare agencies.
Kansas Department for Children and Families Secretary Laura Howard attended the groundbreaking.
She said OCS is the first juvenile intervention center in the state of Kansas and that more are needed across the state.
OCS has served 15,000 children on the ranch since it was established, according to Meier-Hummel.
Meier-Hummel says the child welfare system has changed over the years, and that Elsie's Place will help the O'Connell Children's Shelter respond to those changes.
“The kids coming into the system have higher needs, and we have to think of new and better ways to serve them," she said. "That means them having their own rooms, that means bringing therapeutic services into those facilities, it means bringing psychiatry services to them, it means having their own space to grow."
Meier-Hummel says three beds don't sound like a lot, but it will give children in Kansas' foster care system an estimated thousand days a year of shelter.
"It's three beds, so it's not a lot, but for the type of impact it could have and the answers moving forward about how to address this issue in the state becomes really important," Torrez Dawson, chief operating officer of OCS, said.
OCS is focused on serving children in the Lawrence and Douglas County areas, but if a child from another part of Kansas is in need and there's an open bed, Meier-Hummel says OCS has open doors.
"Families can walk in the door and be like, 'I don't know what's going on. I need help,' and we'll be like, 'We're here to help you, and we're going to figure out what you need,'" Meier-Hummel said.
OCS has received some funding from the state of Kansas for the Elsie's Place project and is halfway toward its $3 million goal, according to Meier-Hummel.
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