Providence House

Olympic Gold Medalist from Northeast Ohio to Share Inspiring Personal Experience Overcoming Crisis at Annual Luncheon

Join Providence House for an inspirational afternoon featuring two-time Olympian and Elyria native Tianna Madison, at our 44th Annual Luncheon on Wednesday, April 30!

Tianna is currently an NCAA Division I Track and Field Coach at San Jose State University and previously worked at Providence House as a Licensed Social Worker supporting children and families in crisis.

She will share her personal journey of surviving domestic violence and the Black maternal health crisis as well as the important role Providence House plays in keeping kids safe and families together based on her firsthand experience.

Tianna’s story illustrates how anyone can be impacted by crisis and the incredible achievements that are possible for individuals and families who receive support.

The community and members of the media are invited to hear her impactful story alongside hundreds of community leaders, our corporate partners, and dedicated supporters as we celebrate 44 years and more than 16,000 kids kept safe and families together!

Our Annual Luncheon takes place from 11:30 am – 1:30 pm on Wednesday, April 30 at The Westin Cleveland Downtown.

Tickets are available now at provhouse.org/luncheon – all tickets include a delicious lunch, complimentary self-parking in a garage attached to The Westin, a special guest gift, and a donation to Providence House.

Any members of the media who would like to cover the event can contact Providence House Marketing & Communication Director Kaitlyn Lionti at kaitlyn@provhouse.org for further details.

About Providence House

Providence House keeps kids safe and families together to prevent foster care placements by embracing them with support during times of crisis to help enhance stability. We’ve served more than 16,000 children and families across Northeast Ohio since 1981 – and in the last five years, 99% of our families have stayed together!

Providence House is a national leader in family preservation and the first and only Crisis Nursery in the U.S. to be listed in the California Clearinghouse for Evidence-Based Practices for our unique blend of holistic children’s crisis care and family preservation services!

Providence House Crisis Nurseries provide free, voluntary, 24/7 emergency shelter in a safe, licensed, homelike environment to children newborn through age 12 whose families are experiencing challenges such as homelessness, domestic violence, sobriety, mental health, or medical crises.

While their children stay at Providence House, parents and guardians have peace of mind knowing their children remain in their custody and are receiving loving care despite their temporary separation.

During that time, Providence House Social Workers provide holistic support to families to address the challenges they’re facing through individualized counseling, parenting education, trauma services, case management, and connections to more than 100 community partner agencies to resolve their crises and build a strong foundation for their family’s future.

Our West Campus is located on West 32nd Street in Ohio City and our new East Campus is on Buckeye Road in the Buckeye-Shaker Neighborhood.

Providence House is excited to celebrate Cleveland Browns Running Back Nick Chubb at our 29th Annual Deck the House Benefit Auction this evening, Tuesday, December 10, 2024, from 5:30 to 9:30 pm in the City View Lounge at Cleveland Browns Stadium.

Chubb was selected by his teammates to receive the 2024 Ed Block Courage Award recognizing him for his dedication, strength, professionalism, and commitment to the community. The award was named in honor of the beloved Head
Athletic Trainer of the Baltimore Colts from 1954-1977, who is remembered as a compassionate humanitarian who worked tirelessly to improve the lives of children. The Ed Block Courage Award is very special, as it is the only award in
the NFL decided by a player’s peers.

To help make a positive impact in NFL communities across the country, The Ed Block Foundation began the Courage House National Support Network for Kids, made up of organizations committed to supporting children in NFL cities. The Cleveland Browns were the 11th member of the NFL’s Courage House Network – and Providence House has been the Browns’ Courage House since 1999!

This year is the 25th Anniversary of the Ed Block Courage Award Ceremony at Deck the House, marking a significant milestone in our partnership with the Browns. We’re excited to honor Chubb this evening in an exciting 25th Anniversary Ceremony featuring the Executive Director of the Ed Block Courage Award Foundation, Brett Dickinson, and sponsored by our longtime supporters at The Albert M. Higley Co.

Deck the House is our largest Providence House fundraiser of the year to support our mission of keeping kids safe and families together by supporting them through crisis. In the last 5 years, 99% of our families have stayed together!

Tickets are sold out, but the community can still participate in our Silent Auction online until 8:30 pm tonight by visiting deckthehouse.givesmart.com and there are many ways to support our children and families this holiday season at provhouse.org/holiday

The Cleveland Guardians and iHeartMedia’s Newsradio WTAM 1100 AM & 106.9 FM are teaming up to host their annual “Stuff the Truck” donation drive for the children of Providence House on Friday, July 19 from 5 am to 7 pm in Gateway Plaza where WTAM will be broadcasting live with Bill Wills, Mike Snyder, Jimmy Malone, and The Bloomdaddy Show throughout the day!

Providence House is a local non-profit organization that keeps kids safe and families together, supporting families through crises and helping prevent foster care placements by providing 24/7 emergency shelter to children in the safe, loving environment of our Crisis Nursery.

The Stuff the Truck donation drive collects critical items for the children who stay at Providence House – including clothing, diapers and household items needed to care for them while Providence House Social Workers provide support services to their parents or guardians to help them improve stability for their family – and they do. Last year, 99% of our families stayed together!

We have a “wish list” of items we need most at provhouse.org/stuffthetruck – and invite community members to bring their donations to Gateway Plaza during the event. A 16-foot truck donated by Moving Ahead Services will be on site, and we’re hoping to stuff it full of donations for the children of Providence House!

Karen Dolan, a Providence House Legacy Council Member, will be representing the Cleveland Guardians on-site at the event alongside Providence House President & CEO Natalie Leek. They’ll be greeting donors and sharing the impact of the community’s generosity.

Between 5 am and 3 pm, donations can be driven up to the truck in Gateway Plaza – but this year, the route to enter Gateway Plaza has changed! Donors will enter from the corner of Huron Road and East 6th Street, and turn on East 6th Street to get to the truck. After we help them unload their donation, they’ll exit the plaza onto Ontario Street.

From 3 to 7 pm, Gateway Plaza will be closed to vehicular traffic, but donations can be dropped off to volunteers on foot – so anyone headed to the Guardians game can participate on their way into Progressive Field. We’ll be set up right outside the Left Field District Gate!

If you can’t make it to the event, you can still make a difference for the children of Providence House! The Joan P. Wenk Charitable Fund has generously committed to a dollar-for-dollar match of up to $10,000 in monetary donations for Stuff the Truck! Community members can make a monetary gift by texting stuffthetruck (no spaces) to 41444, visiting this link, or by mailing a check made out to Providence House to 2050 West 32nd Street, Cleveland, OH 44113 (we ask that donors write Stuff the Truck in the note section or on the envelope).

This year’s event is more important than ever as we prepare to open our new Providence House East Campus Crisis Nursery in Buckeye-Shaker to serve 250 more children who need us each year.

We appreciate your help in getting the word out about this important opportunity to support children in crisis in our community!

About Providence House

Providence House is a Family Preservation Crisis Nursery that has helped keep more than 15,000 kids safe and families together across Northeast Ohio since 1981, embracing them with support to enhance stability that strengthens communities.

We provide free, voluntary, 24/7 emergency shelter to children newborn through age 12 whose families are experiencing crises such as homelessness, domestic violence, sobriety, mental health, or medical challenges. Our Crisis Nursery is a safe, licensed, homelike environment that gives parents and guardians peace of mind, knowing their children remain in their custody and receive loving care despite their temporary separation.

While their children stay with us, parents and guardians engage with our Social Work Team to address the challenges they’re facing through Family Preservation Services including individualized counseling, parenting education, trauma services, case management, and connections to our more than 130 community partner agencies to provide support and build a strong foundation for their family’s future.

In the last five years, 99% of our families have stayed together after engaging with our services!

Our families come from 37 zip codes across Greater Cleveland. The majority of families we serve are led by single moms of color. Last year, 20% of our families came to Providence House without any income, and 100% did not meet the ALICE threshold of earning “living wages.”

We also offer community-based services, including a Community Referral Program that provides essential need items to families through referrals from partner agencies.

Our West Campus is in Ohio City, and our new East Campus is in the Buckeye-Shaker Neighborhood – and opening soon!

Providence House is excited to welcome members of the media and the community to our 28th Annual Deck the House Benefit Auction for Children and Families on Tuesday, December 5, 2023!

This festive event is our largest fundraiser of the year to support our mission of keeping kids safe and families together through our Family Preservation Crisis Nursery services.

That support is needed now more than ever as we prepare to open our new East Campus Crisis Nursery to serve an additional 250 children and 400+ families each year!

Deck the House 2023 will feature:

• Cleveland Browns Player Jack Conklin and Caitlyn Conklin as our Honorary Event Chairs

• A special video message from Pro Football Hall of Famer Joe Thomas and Annie Thomas

• Exciting live and silent auction packages including:
• A signed Joe Thomas Cleveland Browns Jersey
• 7-Night Stay in a Donegal, Ireland Seaside Cottage for up to 6 Guests
• The Owners Suite for a 2024 Cleveland Guardians Game
• A guitar signed by Jimmy Buffet

• Beautiful, professionally decorated holiday trees available for auction

• The Ed Block Courage Award Ceremony honoring a Cleveland Browns Player selected by his teammates for being an exemplary community role model

The event takes place from 5:30 – 9:30 pm on Tuesday, December 5, 2023, in the City View Lounge at Cleveland Browns Stadium.

Guests with VIP Tickets can arrive at 4:30 pm for an hour of early auction browsing!

Tickets are on sale until Saturday, December 2 at 11:59 pm and can be purchased at provhouse.org/deckthehouse.

The silent auction will open for bidding online this weekend at the link above, and those who cannot attend the event can still participate!

Complimentary valet will be available for members of the media and all guests at the University Hospitals Southeast Gate and Entrance.

Please contact Providence House Marketing Director Kaitlyn Lionti with any questions.

About Providence House

Providence House has helped keep more than 14,000 children safe and families together in the last 42 years, embracing them with support to enhance stability and strengthen communities.

We provide free, voluntary, 24/7 emergency shelter to children newborn through age 12 whose families are experiencing crisis situations such as homelessness, domestic violence, sobriety, mental health, or medical challenges. Our Family Preservation Crisis Nursery is a safe, licensed, homelike environment for children that gives parents and guardians peace of mind knowing their children remain in their custody and are receiving loving care.

While their children stay with us, parents and guardians engage with our Social Work Team to address the challenges they’re facing through counseling, parenting education, trauma services, case management, and connections to our more than 130 community partner agencies to provide support and build a strong foundation for their family’s future.

Our families come from more than 30 zip codes across Greater Cleveland. The majority of families served are led by single moms of color. Last year, 20% of our families came to Providence House without any income, and 100% met the ALICE threshold of earning non-living wages.

We also offer community-based services, including a Community Referral Program that provides essential need items to families through referrals from partner agencies.

Our West Campus is located in Ohio City, and our new East Campus is located in the Buckeye-Shaker Neighborhood.

Members of the media are invited to join Providence House, local officials, and community supporters on Friday, October 13, 2023, at 11 am for an East Campus Crisis Nursery Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony celebrating the completion of our new Crisis Nursery in the Buckeye-Shaker Neighborhood.

Providence House, Ohio’s first Crisis Nursery, will become the nation’s largest residential Crisis Nursery with the opening of our new 20-bed Crisis Nursery in Cleveland’s Buckeye-Shaker community. The new Crisis Nursery will allow us to serve nearly 250 additional children each year and is named Hope’s House in honor of our founder, Sister Hope Greener, CSJ, who opened Providence House in 1981.

Over the past 42 years, we have kept more than 14,000 children safe and their families together on our West Campus in Ohio City, and last year, 98% of the families who had a child stay with us reunited after successfully addressing the crisis situation that brought them to us! Together, our East and West Campus Crisis Nurseries will care for nearly 600 infants and children each year!

Our East Campus was constructed to address an alarming increase in the need for our Family Preservation Crisis Nursery services – as approximately 400 children are on our waitlist or go completely unserved each year due to a lack of space and resources. Nearly 70% of those children live in East Side neighborhoods, so we decided to “grow where the children are” and build our second home in a community more accessible to families and children who need us.

Our Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony will feature remarks from the following Providence House champions:

• Greg Rush, Senior Vice President and CFO of the Cleveland Browns and Chair of the Providence House Board of Directors
• Paul and Karen Dolan of the Cleveland Guardians, Co-Chairs of our Giving Hope for the PHuture Campaign for our East Campus
• Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne
• Cleveland City Council President Blaine Griffin
• Natalie A. Leek, Providence House President and CEO

The ceremony will also feature an Interfaith Blessing bestowed by our East Side neighbors, Rabbi Josh Jacobs of B’nai Jeshurun Congregation and Pastor Clarence Hall of Morning Star Baptist Church.

The Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony will be held in the parking lot of our new East Campus at 11801 Buckeye Road, Cleveland. You can enter the parking lot from East 119th Street. Limited parking will be available in the lot, but there is also street parking available as well as in an adjacent lot on East 118th Street.

*Please note – our Ribbon-Cutting ceremony is by invitation only, but we are also hosting a Community Open House on Friday, October 13, from 3 – 6 pm so the public can tour our new East Campus and learn more about our services for children and families. Media is welcome at both events.

More on the Story

While we are incredibly grateful to be celebrating the completion of our East Campus Crisis Nursery, unfortunately, financial challenges are currently delaying our ability to begin welcoming children at our new East Campus Crisis Nursery.

Despite 42 years of proven success in our mission to keep kids safe and families together, we remain 80% privately funded and are often at the mercy of economic, environmental, and international conditions.

These challenges have been significantly amplified by the post-pandemic economy:

• Inflation and workforce pay demand have increased our costs by 24%
• Economic concerns are driving fundraising down across the nonprofit sector
• Our largest government funder has decreased by 60% over the past 4 years
• The crisis nursery state budget line was just reduced by $150,000

Given our current funding challenges, we are pausing recruitment and staffing for our new East Campus Crisis Nursery at this time in an effort to stabilize our funding levels for children and families in crisis at our West Campus. It is important to remind everyone that the funds we received through our Giving Hope for the PHuture Capital Campaign were restricted for construction and cannot be used for operating costs.

Providence House is committed to opening our new East Campus so we can address the increasing needs of children and families that prompted our expansion and will ramp up East Campus services in phases as soon as our funding levels recover.

To reach our goal of beginning services at our East Campus, we have launched an Urgent Need Appeal to help cover the recent cuts in our funding and are asking the community for support.

If we can raise $150,000 by Friday, October 20, an anonymous donor has agreed to match that amount dollar for dollar! Anyone interested in making a gift can visit our website, provhouse.org/urgent.

About Providence House

Providence House has helped keep more than 14,000 children safe and families together in the last 42 years, embracing them with support to enhance stability and strengthen communities.

We provide free, voluntary, 24/7 emergency shelter to children newborn through age 12 whose families are experiencing crisis situations such as homelessness, domestic violence, sobriety, mental health, or medical challenges. Our Family Preservation Crisis Nursery is a safe, licensed, homelike environment for children that gives parents and guardians peace of mind knowing their children remain in their custody and are receiving loving care.

While their children stay with us, parents and guardians engage with our Social Work Team to address the challenges they’re facing through counseling, parenting education, trauma services, case management, and connections to our more than 130 community partner agencies to provide support and build a strong foundation for their family’s future.

Our families come from nearly 30 zip codes across Greater Cleveland. The majority of families served are led by single moms of color. Last year, 20% of our families came to Providence House without any income, and nearly 100% met the ALICE threshold of earning non-living wages.

We also offer community-based services, including a Community Education and Resiliency Program and a Community Referral Program that provides essential need items to families through referrals from partner agencies.

Our West Campus is located in Ohio City, and our new East Campus is located in the Buckeye-Shaker Neighborhood.

CONTACT Kaitlyn Lionti, Providence House | kaitlyn@provhouse.org | 216.651.5892 ext. 141