Texas Family Initiative begins construction in Wichita Falls

WICHITA FALLS, Texas (KAUZ) - The Texas Family Initiative has begun construction on a new residential child care facility in Wichita Falls.

This will provide services to local youth in foster care that have not been available before. There are currently around 17 to 18 kids in Wichita County that receive this service elsewhere because it isn’t provided here, but that is all about to change.

Construction is underway and is expected to take several months. The TFI purchased a building along Midwestern Parkway over a year ago, but they haven’t been able to begin construction due to COVID and material shortages. Those roadblocks are gone and construction is now underway.

Staff said they’re excited to be able to better help children transitioning into the foster care community.

“A lot of times what happens is they will be faced with a family and they are not quite ready after the challenges they have gone through,” Steven Mandeville, Texas Family Initiative fund development specialist, said. “They have seen a lot of hard things in life and it happens everywhere and they really aren’t ready to be in family custody. Families have a hard time learning how to care for them, so a facility like this, you really interject in a really strategic time in these kids’ lives.”

Once open, the facility will have 26 beds, plenty of staff on hand and multiple medical professionals to help with both the physical and mental trauma that a child might have gone through.

Construction is expected to take several months, but the hope and anticipation is the facility will be ready to open sometime in spring of 2023.

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