West Valley Child Crisis Center

A Safe Place to Call Home

The West Valley Child Crisis Center, established in 1986 by the Soroptomists, was the first children's shelter in the West Valley. It remains the only shelter of its size in this rapidly growing region of the Phoenix metropolitan area that provides shelter, food, clothing and a range of other support services to children from birth to age eight who are abused, neglected or abandoned.

When the board of directors decided to undertake a $3.3 million capital development campaign to build a new Kids' Campus, West Valley Child Crisis was operating from two modest residential homes in the area of 59th Avenue and Camelback. This allowed for the care of only 15 children at a time. The organization had to expand to meet the increasing demand for its services from West Valley communities.

Vickie and Jerry Moyes contributed the $500,000 lead gift to the campaign. Bill Raper of WMR Construction served as construction manager for the project, which resulted in a gated community of comfortable, "homelike" shelters - a genuine "Kids' Campus." Volunteer groups from Anthem and Arrowhead Country Clubs, Rotary International, Golden W.H.E.E.L. and the Officers' Wives of Luke Air Force Base volunteered hundreds of hours to decorate the interiors of each home in unique themes such as music, art, space, sports and nature.

The new facility significantly increased residential capacity to 44 children, allowing West Valley Child Crisis to serve as many as 400 children each year. Additional space was added for play therapy and extensive one-on-one counseling. A children's enrichment center serves as the hub of the campus and houses a library and computer lab as well as an "all-campus" kitchen, a unified food preparation and clothing bank and two all-purpose activity rooms.

To learn more about the West Valley Child Crisis Center, please visit www.wvccc.org.