Groundbreaking on new Fort Myers facility for grieving children

On Friday morning, Valerie’s House, Inc. broke ground on a new Fort Myers facility for helping children work through grief and loss.

One in 12 children in Florida will experience the death of a parent or sibling by age 18, and Valerie’s House provides grief support programs for those children and families who are grieving. The nonprofit is breaking ground today on its new “forever home” that it says will allow more families and children to receive help. The new 7,000-square-foot facility will provide the organization with a larger location.

Angela Melvin, the founder of Valerie’s House, says this new facility located at 3551 Shoemaker Lane was made possible with the help of Fort Myers city leaders.

“We’re serving a couple thousand children a year, and the current house that we’re in, we just don’t have enough space, but this is more than we could have ever dreamed of,” Melvin said. “The land was donated by the City of Fort Myers… it’s a full acre. It’s going to allow us to build this first phase and then even have the potential down the line to expand.”

Around $2.5 million was raised toward the $3 million cost of this new facility.

“We are very excited about the Valerie’s House forever home,” Melvin said. “This is a long time in the making this home is going to help so many people in so many kids especially the room is specifically designed to help them with all their emotions that come along with grief.>

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