Courtesy of The News-Banner
By Holly Gaskill
Helping Hands Family Resource Center has broken ground on a new $3 million facility on the north side of Bluffton.
Helping Hands was founded in 2013 by Brandy Aschliman as Helping Hands Crisis Pregnancy Center, offering services to expectant mothers. The organization has since grown to over 20 services across two buildings, meeting family needs throughout pregnancy, childhood and parenting.
The new facility will allow Helping Hands to offer all of its programs at one location, as well as add new services, like low-cost testing for sexually transmitted diseases and infections. Helping Hands expects a 30% increase in visits within the first year at its new building.
In a groundbreaking celebration Monday, the organization’s executive director, Kylie Tomlin, called the project a testament to the community’s support for families. The land itself — located at 2120 Commerce Drive — was donated, and over $1.6 million was raised for construction costs.
“God has shown up in some really incredible ways the past two years (of planning this project),” said Lane Sander, Helping Hands board president. “And as dirt begins moving on this site in the coming weeks, we’re just getting started. I think about, as we stand here on this ground today, the families in crisis that are going to be walking onto this ground, and they’re going to encounter resources and hope.”
“What moves me most is what that generosity represents,” Tomlin said. “It’s a shared belief that families matter, and that hope matters, and that our community is strongest when we care for one another.”
Helping Hands has also received approval for up to $1,257,000 in grant funding through United Way — $150,000 more than the organization had expected after preliminary approval.
“In Wells County, one in three families is … working hard but barely making ends meet,” said Ben Renkenberger, director and CEO of the United Way of Wells County. “And that reality calls us to do more and more every day. It calls us to help build healthier communities, to help build financial stability. It calls us to invest in long-term community resilience. And this groundbreaking is not just about a building, it’s about what becomes possible inside that building for families, for children and for the future of Wells County.”
Helping Hands operated out of its founding location at 116 E. Dustman Rd. in Bluffton, using First Church of Christ as a secondary location to accommodate large program sizes. The new two-story facility will nearly triple its building size to roughly 12,800 square feet.
The new site will include four different medical rooms, nine children’s classrooms, multiple meeting spaces, on-site washers and dryers to clean donated materials, a kitchen and dedicated supply and storage areas, among many other features.
“From the very beginning, we knew this project was more than just a building,” said Todd Reimschisel, who represented the project’s steering committee. “It was about creating a place where lives can be transformed. Helping Hands continues to stand in the gap at a time when the need is getting bigger, the gap is getting larger and resources are dwindling. We are grateful to have an organization willing to meet the people in these moments.”
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