Volunteers tear out interior of old elementary

Development of an intake area for new foster children could be ready this spring.

Volunteers from several organizations and churches turned out Saturday to help with interior demolition of a section of the old Southeast Elementary School, now the headquarters for Restoration Rome. Restoration Rome leader Jeff Mauer said he hopes to convert the old library, rest rooms and several classrooms into a new intake and examination area for foster children entering the system.

Brooks Building Group of Rome has been retained to serve as the general contractor for the renovations, but volunteers helped knock down walls, pull insulation out of the dropped ceiling and perform other tasks during a demolition day Saturday.

“We took possession of the building on May 1, 2016, so on the two-year anniversary we want to have a grand opening of the care center, at least that’s our goal,” Mauer said Saturday.

The comprehensive care center will include an initial intake and examination area where the former library and media room were at in the old school building. Supervised visitation rooms where birth parents can meet with their children, sessions that could one day lead to family reunification, will be adjacent to the intake and exam area.

Mauer said he hopes that Brooks’ crews can really get started with the new construction early in February and get the job done by May 1.

Restoration Rome, a local affiliate of Global Impact International, is an organization that grew out of a desire to do something about the foster care crisis in Rome and Floyd County.

Close to 400 children in the Rome area have been taken away from the birth parents for a variety of reasons, and most of them have been sent to others areas of the state for care.

Leadership of the group was able to convince the city to turn over the old school building to be converted into a comprehensive care facility. Services would include healthcare services, education and mentoring, parenting

and family support, mental health, substance abuse intervention, spiritual support and general community programming.

Several community partners already have offices or are conducting programming in the former school building, including the Rome-Floyd Commission on Children and Youth, YMCA, Northwest Georgia Housing Authority, Bethany Christian Services, Court Appointed Special Advocates and the Department of Family and Children’s Services among others.

Doug Walker / RN-T Heather Villa from Douglasville competes in the box jump Saturday at the Three Rivers Throwdown hosted by CrossFit UCS at Unity Christian School. See more photos from the Three Rivers Throwdown inside on page A3.

Doug Walker / RN-T Clay Crawford takes down the dropped ceiling in the old Southeast Elementary as part of Restoration Rome’s renovations.

Doug Walker / RN-T Restoration Rome executive Jeff Mauer tosses insulation into a heap Saturday in the old Southeast Elementary building.