By Steve Summers and Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — Rock House Kids has received a $250,000 state grant that will allow the nonprofit safe haven for children to go forward with its expansion on Seventh Street.
The facility at 1325 Seventh St. is due to get a renovated multipurpose room and four more classrooms for the first through 12th graders it cares for after school. The multipurpose room will have equipment for movie nights, as well as basketball and volleyball.
The nonprofit hopes to have the expansion finished by the end of the year.
“We’re going to break ground and make an awesome place for the kids,” Executive Director Deanna Lacny said on This Week in the Stateline. “Can you imagine a huge Christmas party in this big multipurpose room? We are so excited.”
The grant comes from the Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity and it was secured by state Rep. Maurice West.
“Rock House Kids has been a safe haven where kids in our community have had their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs met for more than two decades,” West said in a news release. “Organizations like Rock House Kids uplift our neighborhoods by providing safe and productive opportunities for young people and meeting their needs on a daily basis.”
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Rock House Kids provides free evening programming, mentoring, hot meals, take-home food and daily essentials to more than 250 youth on four evenings a week.
It launched its capital campaign in 2020, and this grant coupled with other donations helped it reach its fundraising goal.
“After three years of raising funds for our capital campaign and then revising our goal due to a steep rise in inflation, this grant provides the rest of the funding we needed,” Lacny said in a news release. “We anticipate this added space will allow us to have both our teens and grade school kids be able to come four evenings a week instead of every other night like they do now.
“That means more evenings when they are safe, off the streets; more hot meals, more time for our mentors to pour into their lives.”
This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on Twitter at @KevinMHaas.