Vine Maple Place plans to build Family Hope Center

Hoping to break ground in the summer, Vine Maple Place is raising money to help build its new 15,000 square foot facility called the Family Hope Center.

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Hoping to break ground in the summer, Vine Maple Place is raising money to help build its new 15,000 square foot facility called the Family Hope Center.

The $4.7 million project will add more counseling offices, training rooms and more children and youth areas to serve an estimated 400 more families per year, according to a press release.

“The services are customized for each family to give them the tools they need to avoid homelessness in their future,” the release stated.

So far more than $3 million has been raised in initial fundraising efforts from gifts and pledges, Executive Director Michelle Frets said.

The Family Hope Center will be built on the .77 acre plot of land behind where Vine Maple Place is located in Maple Valley.

The goal is, Frets said, to open the doors to the new facility a year after breaking ground.

Vine Maple Place covers about a 9-mile radius, Frets said.

A majority, roughly 40 percent, come from the Maple Valley, Covington and Black Diamond area.

Twenty percent of families are from Kent, 15 percent from the Fairwood/Renton area and the remaining reach out to Vine Maple Place from Auburn, Hobart and Ravensdale.

Last year, Frets said Vine Maple Place helped 141 families, which equaled roughly 410 individuals.

Since 2000, Vine Maple Place has been helping single parents and their children who are facing homelessness.

And in 2012, they started helping those who may not be homeless yet but those who are also in danger of becoming homeless.

Vine Maple Place provides single parents with financial literacy training, employment and livable-wage development, housing case management, counseling and life skills development. Vine Maple Place also provides child and youth services, according to its website.

Aside from the training, Vine Maple Place has a number of duplexes where single families can stay for 30 to 60 days while they look for work and a place to stay.

From 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 13 at Tahoma High School, Vine Maple Place has scheduled a community celebration to raise money for the Family Hope Center.

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