Whitley County organization breaks ground on recovery support facility
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Mission 25, a not-for-profit headquartered in Columbia City that provides recovery, prevention and support services for people with substance use disorder, victims of domestic violence and those at risk of housing displacement, broke ground Monday morning on a shelter it says will expand its capacity.
The $5 million facility, known as Mission 25 Shelter Services, is designed to more than double the amount of people the organization can serve.
“It allows us to serve families better,” said Matt Shipman, board president for Mission 25. “We are starting to see a really increase in demand of fathers with children; we have no ability to serve them now.”
Shipman told Inside INdiana Business the not-for-profit has outgrown its current operation.
“We have an existing facility that used to be an old motel, and that facility is 50 years old,” he said. “The plan of this project is to eliminate that facility and to build and create new facility that’s modern, expands our ability and capacity to serve, and that gives people an option for a transition.”
The new facility, to be located at 615/623 N. Opportunity Drive, will serve as a level 3 recovery residence, with a focus on creating wraparound services and transitional housing for individuals, as well as families.
“Families are difficult and limited, and then having the ability to segregate wings based on children, men and women, and then to be able to provide those services to a wider variety of people,” Shipman said.
Currently, Mission 25 has the capacity to serve 24 individuals, and the new facility will increase that number to 54. Plus, the organization is adding a new service line to support single fathers and their children, which it said is difficult to find in Indiana.
“And then on top of it, we have absolutely no space in our old building for our staff,” Shipman said. “They all share an office, in essence. There’s no real space to have therapies individually with clients. So, all of those will really be helped by this new building.”
Mission 25 currently employs 16 people and plans to add two full-time and two-part-time positions with the new facility.
Construction is slated for completion in the spring of 2025.
The project is being funded by a $3.2 million grant from the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration through the state’s allocation of Opioid Settlement funds. Additionally, the Community Foundation of Whitley County and United Way of Whitley and Koscisuko County have contributed a total of $2.1 million.
“The Community Foundation of Whitley County has a trust-based relationship with Mission 25 for one reason – the grant dollars we’ve invested in the organization through the years have consistently resulted in impact,” foundation CEO September McConnell said in a news release. “Day by day, the Mission 25 team chips away at the hardest issues facing our community: homelessness, addiction, mental illness and abuse. It’s the hard work that so many people choose not to see or think about until someone they love needs their help.”
Shipman said the project would not have gotten off the ground as quickly as it has without the support of local and state partners.
“It shows, I think, not only regionally but statewide that people see us as a leader in offering these services and really trying to really wrap around individuals that are in need to try and eliminate, hopefully, recidivism in our jails, to hopefully break the cycle of domestic violence, all of those things associated with what leads people to find their ways to us,” he said. “More services allows us to help more people.”