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97 .3 WZBG, 22 minutes past the hour around the towns. We’re talking with the folks from McCall Behavioral Health Network this morning, and the timing, of course, is perfect because we’re in the middle of Give Local Greater Waterbury and the Litchfield Hills. Remember, givelocalccf . org. We’re over $1 .5 million. 350 important organizations.
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One of them joins us this morning. Maria Coutant -Skinner is Executive Director at McCall. Good morning, Maria. Good morning. Development Director Marissa Mittelstadt joins us as well. Marissa, welcome.
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Thank you. Thanks for having us. Glad to have you both on the show. Um, there is no grass growing under your feet at McCall. You guys are always pursuing new initiatives, growing, offering more, trying to meet the community where they are. Um, and one of the things that’s going on in our messaging right now here at WCBG is the new Roland Bates family wellness center.
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Let’s talk about that. Why that’s important. how close we’re getting to getting that online and how we got here, Maria. Yeah, thanks, Dale. We’ve been doing the three programs that will come under this one roof for many, many years. As a matter of fact, when I started at McCall over 28 years ago, those were the departments I worked in.
0:01:27
It was prevention and family, working with kids and teens. And so we’ve been doing this for a long time. Those programs have now grown in their own departments and we’re able to serve families and kids and do work in the communities. But this is a special opportunity to be able to bring them all under one roof in a beautiful space. And Torrington’s my hometown, so I have been looking at the gorgeous building that we now own for all of my life. It’s that
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story brick building on Midgen Avenue, very grand. It was built by the Pease family, which I think that history is really neat and interesting. The Peases were from Poughkeepsie, New York, and it was a construction company. So a lot of Torrington, the grand buildings, because I think Torrington is so beautiful, were built by the Pease family and they love Torrington. So they wanted to make a home there and they built this very grand, gorgeous home. on Midgen Avenue.
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And all of that original woodwork is still there. The grand staircase, still there. And for many years then, after the Pease family lived there, it was a group home for folks with developmental disabilities run by the state of Connecticut. But then, after that closed, it sat empty for a long time. And every day I would drive by it and say, you know, your imagination starts to go. And if you’re noodling on an issue, like kids are struggling, families have needs, prevention is where we need to focus our efforts, wouldn’t it be wonderful?
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And then we had this incredible opportunity to have the largest gift that has ever come to McCall from the Anne and Roland Bates Family Foundation come to us to be able to realize that vision. And we took that, leveraged that beautiful gift with some dollars from the Community Investment Fund and from the state of Connecticut. And that got us almost all the way there in terms of our fundraising to be able to bring that vision to life. But we’re so close. Well, as we know, the wheels of progress turn slowly. But you, again, you are so close to it.
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And might I just say that you folks at McCall have a great eye for architecture because, you know, from the high street headquarters where you are and everything, you just some beautiful spaces. So let’s talk about where we are now as far as getting the rest of the way, Marissa, and how people can help with that and when we hope to get across that finish line. Yeah, we are so close to being able to, you know, finish construction, furnish this beautiful building and, you know, enter, you know, get these programs inside and really start, you know, helping and supporting our community from one shape shared, beautiful space. So that’s one of the reasons why we’re here at Give Local. We’ve had over the past couple of years, costs have been rising, and unfortunately, that’s created a gap for us.
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So we are really reaching out to different funders, including local individuals who can really see the beauty and how special this facility or really home will be for the community. So yeah, we’re asking people to come out and help support us during Give Local. It’s a great event. And yeah, we’re excited. We’ve raised, you know, close to $5 ,000 so far. We’ve just passed our 50 donors, which is really exciting because it helped us unlock a challenge gift of $1 ,000.
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But we have $7 ,000 left in challenge gifts. So we really need our community to come out and help us get up to our 100 donor goal this year. Every donation makes such a difference, even just a $10 donation, helping us to unlock that challenge. And I think it’s a really special cause to be a part of. And most folks in the general area know about McCall. But a lot of people don’t know how you folks have met the need and now you have grown and expanded To becoming a really important resource not only here in the Greater Torrington area, but in Western, Connecticut So there’s a lot of you know needs to meet and this being Greater Waterbury and the Litchfield Hills It really is you you folks are serving a large swath of the community
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that area so this affects a lot of people so if you’re a listener and you’re listening outside of our core towns here at WZBG and you’re going I didn’t know McCall was making a difference in my town so hopefully we’re reaching those folks and they’re gonna go on and learn a little bit more about you at givelocalccf .org org or at mccallbhn . org and and find out what’s going on but We’re privileged here to do a once -a -month interview with the folks at McCall and getting back to your original topic, Maria, about the Roland Bates Family Wellness Center. When we talk about getting help and hope to people who are facing challenge, it all comes back to support. It all comes back to family. And this new center is focusing on that.
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That’s right. What we found is some of the most impactful and effective work that we do is it goes certainly to the individual and to the systems that surround them. So families are the core of all of our community systems. And so if we can meet those needs with the families and the young people that are attached to them, then we see the overall health and well -being of the entire community start to improve. You know, it’s so much more than a beautiful space for people to come for, you know, family therapy or an adolescent to get a therapy appointment. It really is a healing space.
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So we’ll do all of our prevention programs there that includes mental health first aid and how to recognize if someone might be struggling with suicidal thoughts. It’s really uplifting stuff like positive childhood experiences and how we can build our kids and our families up through those positive experiences. experiences. We do all of that kind of outreach, education, and support, and this will be the launchpad to do all of that. And if you’re just joining us, Maria Kutan Skinner and Marissa Middlestad joined us this morning as we’re talking with the folks from McCall BHN, McCall Behavioral Health Network, about, again, that Family Wellness Center. They’re looking to get open, serving our community, the Anne and Roland Bates Family Wellness Center.
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That is our immediate cross the finish line goal for McCall. You folks always have a new one, too. So as we run out of time on the show, we encourage people go to givelocal . ca and pledge what you can for your favorite charity or not -for -profit and also for McCall Marissa. A final appeal for folks for their support for this endeavor and more at McCall. Yeah, we’re just so grateful to our community, and we’re so thankful for all of the support.
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We have a really, really amazing community here in the Northwest corner. So thank you. Yeah, thank you for your consideration. And there’s some neat videos you can see inside the house. If you go onto any of the social media platforms or the website, it takes you to videos. So you can do a little virtual tour.
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Virtual tour. Nice. So it’s neat. You can peek inside. All right. Please do.
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And thank you both for joining us. Good luck. I’m sure you’re going to get across the finish line. You always do. Thank you. Thank you.
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Pleasure having you on the show.