The nonprofit Griffith Centers, which began offering services in Colorado Springs 25 years ago, is expanding its local reach by creating what President and CEO Tania Sossi calls “an ecosystem of mental and behavioral health services” for troubled children and their families.

Remodeling two large buildings east of downtown where the Northglenn-headquartered organization owns all but one of the properties on the entire block will enable Griffith Centers to add new programs and serve more clientele, she said.

“We’re excited about this community center for youth and families because we’ll be able to do so much more,” Sossi said.

Communities continue to see high demand for children’s mental health care in post-pandemic life, she said, as anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts and criminal activity among youth increased.

“Those had huge impacts on the community and individual families,” Sossi said, “and parents are struggling in how to manage these behaviors.”

Griffith Centers is closing a longtime community outpatient office at 3055 Austin Bluffs Parkway and by August will have relocated all services to buildings and homes on the centralized block it owns on North Farragut Avenue.

The organization provides outpatient and residential behavioral and mental health treatment programs for kids who have been removed from their homes and placed with its foster care agency or who otherwise have entered the Department of Human Services system, children of juvenile justice cases, truant students and children who need individualized education.

The top floor of one of the Farragut Avenue buildings is being turned into an outpatient community center for children and families; the lower floor will provide day services and classes for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Another large building across the street, the Griffith Opportunity School for youth, also is being remodeled to add safety and security upgrades, sensory considerations and contain classes to one level, Sossi said. The co-ed elementary and secondary school accommodates up to 25 students.

“Most of the children have an IEP (Individualized Education Program) but can’t be mainstreamed into traditional schools and need a higher level of support,” Sossi said.

Griffith clients usually range from ages 12 to 19, but Sossi said children as young as 1 year old can benefit from attachment-based therapy in reuniting with families.

The organization also operates residential, congregate foster homes locally, with the goal of preserving and reunifying families, she said.

“We work a lot in our community with kids in the court system who have anger, violence, suicidal ideation, anxiety,” Sossi said. “We’re really trying to make an impact on our youth.”

The program for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities also includes culinary skills training, with gardening and cooking in the kitchen at the Colorado Springs location.

Additional programs at the Colorado Springs site will include:

• Treatment for substance abuse

• Teen groups such as parenting and anger management classes

• An anti-truancy track with a career and life skills curriculum

• Therapeutic support for local schools

• A psychiatric clinic with inpatient and outpatient psychiatric services, a psychologist evaluator and full-time nursing

• Telehealth, particularly for rural communities

• A first-in-the-state overnight respite care program for families of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, “If families want an overnight break or if couples want to go on a date night,” Sossi said.

Building the community center will cost $650,000, with up to another $100,000 needed in donations for interior revamping, Sossi said. The cost of renovations to the Opportunity School is still being calculated.

The organization’s goal is to increase the number of therapists system-wide from 83 to 150 by the end of 2025, Sossi said.

Founded 97 years ago when educator and children’s advocate Emily Griffith opened a home and school for disadvantaged boys, the organization now has offices in metro Denver, Colorado Springs, Greeley, Grand Junction and this month is opening a location in Buena Vista. Services in Colorado Springs began in 1999, with a contract between Griffith and a defunct organization, Chins Up. The two organizations merged in 2002 as Griffith.

“We’re really trauma-driven,” Sossi said. “We still have fidelity to Emily Griffith’s vision and increase services to meet community needs.”

Pre-COVID, Griffith assisted 2,000 families per week; today it’s about 1,200 system-wide, with about 250 clients using the Colorado Springs office.

“Our goal is to work with 800 youth and families by the end of 2025,” Sossi said of the Colorado Springs location.