A new facility will help troubled kids in our area.
Adelphoi Village will house teenage boys who’ve gotten into trouble with the law.
This site used to be a juvenile detention center before it shut down. Now, the new owner is upgrading the building, hiring staff and getting ready to officially open.
The new Adelphoi Village “manor” in Ebensburg will rehabilitate troubled youth from across the state.
The non-profit made a deal with the county to launch two new programs at the former Cambria County Juvenile Detention Center in Ebensburg.
“It took a few weeks to kind of get started,” said Adelphoi CEO Nancy Kukovich. “A lot of people trooped through here to see what they thought about the place, and we decided, ‘we think this is a go’.”
The county shut down the center in 2016 to save taxpayers about $900,000 a year.
Since opening, Adelphoi has invested more than $1 million in capital improvements & agreed to lease the property for the next five to 10 years.
“It basically puts the property back into a reuse,” said Tom Chernisky, President, Cambria County Commissioners.
The new facility will create about 30 new jobs, & Adelphoi plans to hire Saint Francis University masters students, offering $10,000 to offset student loans.
“Working with these kids is not for everybody, and so we’re really looking for people who are highly trained. Saint francis is just down the street for us,” said Kukovich.
The center will house about 30 12 to 19-year-old boys anywhere from a month to a few years, focusing on behavioral and mental health treatment.
“This is sort of a last resort,” said Kukovich. “We got to get it right here.”
Adelphoi opened a high-security program in May and plans to open their “enhanced supervision” program the first week of October and they’re still hiring qualified employees.