November 4, 2009

By JENNIFER HUFFMAN

Napa Valley Register

VOICES youth center is on the move, as the agency for emancipated foster children packs up to relocate to a new home on Lincoln Avenue in Napa. 

The organization will move from an Oak Street home, where its lease is expiring, to the former home of a Children’s Cottage day care center at 780 Lincoln Ave.

“We had to move, but in the end this is turning out to bea fantastic building for us,”  said Leslie Medine, director of VOICES parent organization On the Move.  

“It’s really open,” Medine said. “We really hope to be able to build gardens and make it really like a home.”

On the Move will also run a college career center, called Explorations, in the space.

The new location has other advantages, officials said. It’s located near McPherson Elementary School, where On the Move sponsors a youth program.

As for Children’s Cottage, the day care will consolidate business at its Alta Heights facility on East Avenue, according to a press release. 

On the Move and VOICES will spend the next several months remodeling the new building and anticipate the move will be complete by Jan. 1.

The switch was made largely possible by the Napa-based Gasser Foundation. “Gasser bought property for us,” Medine said.

While the foundation owns the building, “We have along-term lease. We could be there 10 years or more,” Medine said. “To know we will be able to stay for a long time is really great.” 

Strong and Hayden Commercial Real Estate negotiated the transaction to sell the Children’s Cottage property to the Gasser Foundation.

VOICES is the out growth of a Gasser initiative to improve the welfare of foster care youth who were aging out of the system, often without career or other support. The program helps emancipated foster kids ages16 to 24 find housing and work, develop life skills and maneuver through public agencies.

“This is a great way to support a program we believe in by diverting assets that would normally be invested elsewhere,” Gasser FoundationPresident Joe Peatman said.

Besides initial remodeling, On the Move will need help with additional renovations on Lincoln Avenue. “We need lots of volunteers,” Medine said.