Loans, grants to fund facility

The treatment facility will open in the fall of 2007.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR PENNSYLVANIA BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Emotionally disturbed youngsters and homeless animals are getting a new home.
The Human Services Center unveiled its plans for Caritas, 42 acres in Slippery Rock Township on which will be sited the county's only residential treatment facility for emotionally disturbed youths as well as a no-kill animal shelter.
The $1.2 million project is being funded by a mix of grants and loans.
Gary Groves of the U.S. Department of Agriculture presented Human Service Center Executive Director Dennis Nebel with a $600,000 check this week. The USDA is giving the facility a $100,000 grant and a $500,000 loan.
The Hoyt Foundation is giving the project a $60,000 grant, and the Caroline Knox Foundation is contributing $30,000, said Roger Smith, director of Community Services for HSC. First Commonwealth Bank is also involved, he said.
Here's the plan
The animal shelter should be open in the next six to eight weeks. The building, a former garage, has been renovated to accommodate five large dogs, up to eight small dogs and 20 to 30 cats. There are also offices in the building.
The rest of the facility won't be operational until the fall of 2007, Smith said.
This will be the first youth residential treatment facility in the county. Smith said youngsters are now sent as far away as Lancaster for treatment.
An addition will be constructed onto the farmhouse to provide enough space for eight youngsters.
The adolescents will spend an average of three months at the facility while receiving mental health services. It will contain on-site schooling and behavioral modification assistance. There will be 24-hour on-duty staff.
A barn will be renovated to contain a social entrepreneurship project that will house Alpacas, cashmere goats, angora rabbits and Burmese mountain dogs. The dogs will be used to guard the other animals.
All of the animals will be bred for resale and cultivated for their fur. Money from the sales of both will be used to pay the residents, Smith said.
Part of treatment
The youngsters will also be working with animals in the shelter as part of their treatment, he said.
Animals have been used to treat people with mental illness since the 18th century, said Louis Chandler, a developmental psychology professor at the University of Pittsburgh.
Chandler said animals can be used to awaken social and benevolent feelings in the emotionally disturbed.
"I think animals keep us grounded in our humanity. They are who they are and we respect them for that," Chandler said.
Edna LaMont, one of the architects for the project, said they have tried to incorporate a green approach to the project. She said that they used shingles made of recycled army boots and tires on the animal shelter. She said they are also working to preserve wetlands on the property.
cioffi@vindy.com