Monday, April 27, 2009

Scheduled to Close

News broke late last week about the scheduled closing of the Marion County Children's Guardian Home located at 5751 University Avenue. Here's what we know.

On April 16th, the Board of Commissioners of Marion County passed a resolution that orders the closing of the Children's Guardian Home no later than June 30, 2009. The Commission, who has operated the Children's Guardian Home facility since 1992, had been informed by the Indiana Department of Child Services that they would end funding of the facility on June 30th which accounted for a substantial amount of the funding for the Home's programs. With no other sources of funding readily available, the Commission voted for an orderly closing of the facility. The resolution includes a provision that a committee be formed to recommend to the Board of Commissioners the best future use(s) for the facility. The six member committee is to include two Irvington residents.

The Marion County Children's Guardian Home has been a part of the Irvington community for 110 years. Where many communities may not accepted such a facility, Irvington has embraced the children and staff with not only the many volunteers of the Guardian's Home Guild but also the caring and generosity of an uncountable number of Irvingtonians who over the years have given of their time, money, and opened their homes to children served by this facility. Loosing a long term companion like this will be very difficult.

The Irvington Community Council is participating in discussions with the Board of Commissioners and various agencies involved with the ownership and operation of the Marion County Children's Guardian Home to insure Irvington's participation in the many discussions and decisions that lay ahead. We'll keep you posted.