Boys and Girls Homes of NC cuts ribbon on renovated emergency center

LAKE WACCAMAW, NC (WWAY) — On Monday, the Boys and Girls Homes of North Carolina cut the ribbon on the newly renovated Adolph O. Solomon Center. 

The emergency care center provides a safe place to stay for children who’ve been removed from their homes. 

“Just getting everything here, getting everything in here that we wanted in here, “Chief Residential Officer Erika Brown said. 

Brown says the new renovations create a more welcoming environment. 

“The first thing to healing is for the kid to feel safe,” she said. “So we want them to come into an environment where they don’t feel like they’re being even more traumatized or locked up for something. We don’t want them to feel like they’ve done something wrong. We want them to come here, feel welcome being here, and feel safe. ”  

The Solomon Center was first built in 2002 and is the only emergency center for minors in Columbus County. 

According to the Department of Social Services, there are currently more than 10,000 children in foster care in North Carolina alone. 

“And there is a complete dearth of foster homes for them to go to,” President and CEO Marc Murphy said. 

Murphy says the center fills a gap the system.

“Quite often, kids who have been abused or neglected, on top of the trauma of going through that, they might be sleeping in the office of Department of Social Services, or they could end up in an overcrowded foster home,” he explained.

The center also offers an adoption program and long-term housing for children who can’t return home because of abuse or neglect.

“Right here on our Lake Waccamaw campus, we also have long-term residential cottages, and so the kids can make an easy transition from the assessment center into one of our cottages if that’s the type of care they need,” Murphy said.

The newly renovated center already has children on the way—the first kids awaiting placement will arrive Monday.