Brown County Family Center completes $1.2 million addition and renovation

GREEN BAY – The Brown County Family Center recently celebrated the completion of a $1.2 million addition and renovation, creating a home-like setting to support family interaction when a child is removed from their home due to child safety concerns.

The Family Center, located at 1076 St. Agnes Dr., Green Bay, is a collaboration between Brown County Health and Human Services Department and NeighborWorks Green Bay — the only public/private partnership of its kind in Wisconsin.

The current Family Center was a former daycare center purchased and remodeled in 2019 with funds raised by a small group project team from Leadership Green Bay in collaboration with Capital Credit Union.

NeighborWorks is the owner and manages the property and leases it to Brown County Health and Human Services Department.

“We want to have a better place for this community’s children to have a caring environment, a safe place and a fun place to have visits with their birth parents — to experience normalcy that can come from a nice facility like this,” said Noel Halvorsen, executive director of NeighborWorks Green Bay.

Fundraising for the addition and renovation was completed by Friends of Pals, Youth and Families.

“Friends of Pals, Youth and Families supports and funds programs that help children in Child Protective Services and youth justice whose purpose and goal is to empower safety while being in resilience for children right here in our communities,” said Dana Kressig, board president for Friends of Pals, Youth and Families.

The addition and renovations will enable the Family Center to better accommodate larger families and those with older children as well as make the Family Center more functional to meet additional family needs.

The project included a larger open space multi-purpose room, a new two-stall garage, a larger kitchen and dining area, indoor and outdoor furnishings for families, office space for staff, outdoor playground equipment, landscaping, security cameras and a privacy fence.

“The Family Center is truly a family-centered center, with spaces where families can have meals together and they can play games and spend time together in a home-like setting and play outside,” said Emily Jacobson, board member and chair of the Brown County Human Services Committee. “This supports families that are having basic contact or visitation and spending quality time in a safe, supportive and supervised environment.”