ChildSafe: A Nature Center for Healing Victims of Child Abuse | Overland Partners
The latest film from ChildSafe, Overland Partners and Walley Films shares the story of ChildSafe’s new Harvey E. Najim Children & Family Center, a 10-acre campus situated within 36 acres of previously undeveloped green space on San Antonio’s East Side. Conceived as a nature center that heals and the first children’s advocacy center of its kind in the nation, ChildSafe is a trauma-focused care center for child and teen survivors of abuse and neglect and their non-offending family members. The center offers a safe environment and provides a skilled team of health professionals, state agencies, law enforcement and legal professionals to ensure that more cases are reported and prosecuted, while the survivors get the care they need.
ChildSafe brings this entire system, which had previously been spread across three campuses, under one roof in park-like setting, creating a restorative environment for children and families traumatized by abuse. In order for ChildSafe’s campus to fulfill its mission, the issues of abuse and neglect needed to be out in the open. The campus needed to be visible, accessible and welcoming so victims and families would come to ChildSafe to receive services and treatment. The entry sequence to ChildSafe’s campus is open and inviting, not hidden behind a gate or wall. The location of ChildSafe’s campus created a new public park system that connects Salado Creek, Wheatley Heights Sports Complex, and Martin Luther King Park.
ChildSafe’s building design is oriented to the site for optimal views to the surrounding park areas, capturing natural daylight, creating connections to the outdoors, incorporating micro-restorative biophilic elements throughout the space and leveraging the natural environment through activities that immerse children in nature. It was critical ChildSafe neither feel institutional nor like home, where abuse often occurs. Every aspect of ChildSafe's design prioritizes the health and well-being of the child including child-scale views to the outdoors, the sheltering roofline, a healing garden and the only certified outdoor behavioral therapy program in the country. Calling upon the biophilic principles of prospect and refuge to empower children in their environment and provide a sense of safety while encouraging exploration, ChildSafe’s design features refuge spaces for children including the Kid Cave, reading and play nooks under the stairs, booth seating and window seats. While ChildSafe focuses on protecting and healing children traumatized by abuse, the facilities needed to serve ChildSafe’s staff and first responders to help alleviate secondary stress caring for victims. Offices with views to the outdoors, natural daylighting and amenities including a yoga room, meditation room, shaded outdoor areas on both the first and second levels, and a rooftop garden and terrace, provide areas for respite and relaxation.
Celebrating San Antonio's rich heritage and culture was important for ChildSafe. Through a partnership with the University of Texas at San Antonio's rotating art program, visual art is exhibited throughout ChildSafe creating opportunities to experience different works of art in the space. A heritage wall is featured in the main lobby area sharing the stories of notable people who shaped San Antonio's East Side community.
Since its opening in August 2019, ChildSafe's mission to serve as a sanctuary and beacon of hope in Bexar County is transforming individual lives, families and the community. It is a new national model for treating childhood trauma and addressing secondary trauma and shows how a community can be unified to serve its most vulnerable citizens and achieve goals with a greater purpose.