GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The Children’s Healing Center has moved to a new location that provides additional space for the nonprofit.     

The 15,000 square-foot center on the East Beltline south of Lake Drive is more than double the space of the previous building on East Fulton Street.

Melissa Block, the director of development and growth, said the goal of the $8.5-million project is to make a bigger impact.   

“We outgrew our home on Fulton Street and really wanted to intentionally design a new space to better serve our members and we really feel like we have that with this building,” Block said. “We serve families who have a child age zero to 26 who have a life altering illness that makes them more vulnerable to illness than their peers so things like cardiology, kidney, cancer, those types of diagnoses. Our members, a common cold affects them far differently.”

The new space is designed with surfaces that are easy to clean, handwashing stations and a HEPA filtration ventilation system.   

“It really is a hallmark of our space. It might not be the prettiest thing to look at, but that unit alone was a million dollars of our capital campaign and a lot of work went into putting it in the space reinforcing the floor,” Block said.

The building was renovated to better meet the nonprofit’s needs and provides enough room to offer a variety of activities for all ages at the same time.

“One of the hallmarks of this space is a half gym. It really allows our members of all ages to interact and be able to play freely in physical exercise year-round. We’ve also added an art and snack room for our preschool program,” Block said.

The furniture was donated by West-Michigan based Haworth.

“We have also created a second story space that is for our teens, young adults and caregivers, so that allows them true separation from our children for a while to build that community and also take a break,” Block said.

The hope is the new center will serve the community for generations to come.

“There’s an epidemic in our country of isolation and loneliness and that it has a mortality risk factor like obesity, and smoking packs of cigarettes a day, it has a very detrimental effect on your wellbeing so being able to give these families a place where they can socialize and have community it’s really, it’s indescribable really,” Block said.