Opening the Doors to a Happier Place

By Jacqueline Miller  |  Photo by Nancy Guth

I want you to imagine. Imagine growing up in a home with no love—only hurt, isolation and pain. Imagine the trauma two small children suffer as they are taken away in the middle of the night in a police car, victims of abusive or neglectful parents, not knowing if they will ever see one another again. So vulnerable. So scared.

If you grew up in a loving and nurturing environment, it is very hard to imagine this happening. But the sad truth is that far too many of our children are affected every day by heartbreaking abuse and neglect. Is there hope for a brighter future for these traumatized children?

The answer, at least right here in Sarasota, is a very exciting YES! 

Thanks to the passion and vision of local philanthropists Graci and Dennis McGillicuddy, children in need of foster care will soon have the opportunity to experience a life of love, hope and fulfillment when the All Star Children’s Foundation Campus of Hope and Healing celebrates its grand opening in January 2020.

As the McGillicuddys escort a visitor around the campus grounds, witnessing Graci’s optimism and excitement for what will soon be a safe haven for children to heal is quite special. It’s hard not to want to help. Here’s the tricycle trail, shares Graci, which will circle the playground, and the central park lined with majestic oaks where kids will play, gardens will grow, and foster families will relax and picnic. A beautiful arbor, lush landscaping and a gate connects foster homes with the clinical treatment center, ensuring privacy for the children. There’s a courtyard with benches made up of bricks showing the names of community supporters.  The back wall of the treatment center will double as a screen for outdoor movie nights.  You can easily see that Graci is a woman about to achieve her dream of helping vulnerable children in need of a brighter future. 

“I just want our kids to find a happy place on the Campus so that when they go back home and experience difficulty, they can mentally put themselves back here, in their happy place,” Graci says.

She’s always seen the possibilities. For decades, Graci and Dennis have supported services for abused and neglected kids. Through their passion and philanthropy, they opened the new home of the Child Protection Center (CPC) in 2010 – a vital Sarasota organization that aids in the prevention, intervention and treatment of child abuse. 

It was through Graci’s experience and commitment to breaking the cycle of child abuse that she realized that children who are removed from their homes need a safe place to go where restorative, compassionate and science-based treatments will help put them on the path to healing.  Without a loving and nurturing environment combined with the best trauma therapies, the heartbreaking cycle of child abuse will continue to repeat itself and that is unacceptable to the McGillicuddys.

Imagining “what could and should be,” at the All Star Campus the McGillicuddys are addressing all aspects of a child’s experience. The campus will be a place where siblings can remain together; where evidence-based programs and the best therapies enrich the whole child; where they will be cared for by a compassionate team of qualified specialists.

Through the discovery of neuroplasticity, brain science has proven that even severe trauma can be healed. If a child’s trauma is traced to its source, the specialists at the All Star Campus will help children consciously build new habits, responses and choices. Their healing begins, their hope is restored, and their spirits are renewed.

So important is this campus of hope and healing that in 2017 the State of Florida awarded the All Star Children’s Foundation $2.5 million for building expenses. The Barancik Foundation pledged another million so that John’s Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, one of several university research collaborators, could design the trauma-informed treatment and research programs.  Local philanthropists and local businesses added millions more as the McGillicuddys searched—and found five wooded acres for sale along 17th Street, an unofficial social service corridor in Sarasota.The McGillicuddys’ goal is to replicate the treatment models developed at the All Star Campus in foster care systems throughout the country.

With reams of research and collaborative input, Graci and good friend, architect Peter Hoffman, designed the 6 foster homes, the clubhouse and the clinical treatment building for the five-acre All Star Campus. Their design was based on research of the environmental aspects of trauma-informed treatment, including lighting and colors. Project development is being done by a team of professionals hired by Brian Lever, from Tandem Construction, who Graci describes as “incredible.” And to ensure nothing is overlooked, Graci has been involved in every facet of the project, including attending construction planning meetings every other Monday from the start.

While January will be the grand opening, clinicians are moving into the treatment center in November. All Star has already received 100 referrals since its clinical staff began working offsite in April, so more hires will follow. They have also held four 8-week training classes in trauma-informed care for 56 foster parents.

Graci always saw what could be; now she can confidently describe what will be. In the 6 homes, thanks to PGT Innovation who donated all of the windows, natural light fills white and airy spaces. Clerestory windows bring even more light in from the top of the walls.  In the Clinical Treatment Center, a family room allows for supervised visitation, not far from a children’s boutique where children who come to the Campus with only the clothes on their backs can pick out new clothing. Upstairs, there are multiple therapy rooms, including 8 offices, 4 with one-way glass for observation. There’s an art room with its no-matter-what-splatters concrete floor. Another room with throw cushions on the floor invites kids to get comfy as they practice exercises to find peace in the present moment. A mix-use clubhouse will also include the “All Star Academy” to help children prepare to go back to school.  The clubhouse will also include a pantry and large indoor playroom to celebrate birthdays and holidays. “Everything you see is research-based to give the kids the best cocoon to heal and thrive,” Graci says.

Children may not notice the details of purposeful design, but they will likely hear the good wishes whispering from the walls. Before construction crews drywalled the All Star Treatment Center lobby, they whitewashed a piece of plywood nailed to a stud, and Graci invited donors to take a colored marker and leave a message to the children so that the love would be embedded in the fabric of the walls. They did, with hearts and stars and swirls:

Know You Are ALWAYS Loved

& NEVER Alone!

Dance! Sing! Love! Be Who You ARE!

Love Heals

Hope Builds

&

Inspiration Changes Lives Forever!

WE CARE!

Dennis’s favorite came from his brother: Within these walls, we will witness the rebirth of the human spirit. “To me that captures what we’ll be doing,” Dennis says. “These children—born innocent and then having suffered the way they’ve suffered—we’re giving them an opportunity for a rebirth.”

Graci took a photo of the messages and plans to hang it on the second floor.

For the kids with the rawest wounds who are new to the child-welfare system, the ones who might arrive in a squad car, taken from a dangerous situation, the residential section, Dennis explains, “allows us to create models for best practices when children are first removed. Because the sooner we can get them into services that can actually heal the trauma, the better.”

In the lead-up to the grand opening, the McGillicuddys are also deeply involved in defining and hiring ideal foster parents, who will contribute to the clinical studies. “The child comes to your home and has an invisible suitcase,” Graci explains. “What the foster parent has to figure out is what’s in that invisible suitcase that is causing them to act and react. Part of it is to question, not ‘What’s wrong with you?’ but ‘What happened to you?’” All Star welcomes sincere couples to apply for foster parenting.

The McGillicuddys’ work won’t end in January. “I’m going to be here every day,” says Graci, the mother of 2 children, who now anticipates adding scores more under her wing. “It’s going to be a happy place,” she says.

For more information on how you can help, visit allstarchildrensfoundation.org or call 941.217.6503.