The Children's Healing Center provides clean, safe fun for children with weakened immune systems in West Michigan. Now, they'll be sharing that safe play space with children in Southeastern Michigan with the groundbreaking of its second-ever location in Ypsilanti Township.
The new location will be built from the ground up and designed to provide as close to a germ-free environment as possible. The 11,000-square-foot facility will have different zones, including:
- Exploratory Play: Space that supports exploration and play-based learning, including an educational environment for the Center’s Little Tots University Preschool and areas for creativity and imagination.
- Active Fitness: Space that encourages kids to get moving and release energy, featuring a space to run, jump and play. It will also include flexible configurations that will allow for group games, fitness classes, yoga, sports, dance, and other activities.
- Teen & AYA: Space for teens and young adults to call their own, designed to encourage group activities and games, build community and stimulate conversation.
- Parent Lounge: Space for parents to connect and share with one another, with flexible seating and a designated work area.
- Café/Kitchen: Kitchen space for culinary programs that foster healthy habits, as well as a coffee bar for parents and young adults and relaxation spaces for staff.
- Art Room: Offering a hands-on area that allows children to be messy and creative as they work on individual and group art and educational projects. The environment will be designed to encourage exploration, ideation, and learning.
- Garden: An outdoor space offering hypoallergenic plants and play areas designed to be suitable for children of all abilities.
More than one-quarter of the Center’s operating budget will be dedicated to maintaining a super-clean space, which will feature vinyl and other easily cleanable materials used through the Center, use of microbial-resistant surfaces amenable to frequent disinfection, designated HEPA air filtration system and positive pressurization to maintain air quality, as well as the use of filtered tap water along with state-of-the-art technology to ensure there is no standing water.
The project should take approximately eight to nine months to complete before the doors officially open.
The first Center opened in Grand Rapids in 2015.
To learn more, visit childrenshealing.org.
