Hugh L. McColl, Jr., Chairman of the Capital Campaign for the new Carol Grotnes Belk Children & Family Services Center, will preside at a groundbreaking ceremony for the new facility on Monday, January 7, 2002.  The ceremony will be at 3:00 PM at the building site at the corner of 5th and N. Davidson Streets.  The public is invited.

There will be a reception preceeding the groundbreaking at the Carole A. Hoefener Community Services Center at 2:30 PM at 610 E. 7th Street, across the street from the new building site.

Other participants in the groundbreaking will be Mary Tribble, Chairman of the Children & Family Services Center, and Barbara Spradling, Sr. VP, Bank of America, a member of the Board of Directors.

Children from the Trinity Episcopal School, also in First Ward, will participate as the official groundbreakers, representing the many children who will be served by the nine participating agencies in the new building.

The successful $9 million capital campaign will finance the construction and furnishing of half of a five-story building in First Ward which will house the Children & Family Services Center and meet the pressing needs of the agencies for modern information management and communication systems.

The participating agencies of the Children & Family Services Center, Inc. are:  A Child's Place, Children's Law Center, Community Link, Communities in Schools, Council for Children, Smart Start, United Family Services, Youth Homes, and YouthNetwork (formerly The Relatives).

The new building will be the newest addition to the revitalized First Ward neighborhood on a plot bounded by Davidson, Alexander, Fifth and Sixth Streets.  Construction is expected to be completed by early 2003.