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Local nonprofit Raleigh’s Place held a ribbon cutting ceremony on Oct. 1 to give a first look at its new transitional apartments for young men. (CAREY REEDER | ADVERTISER)

Executive Director of Raleigh’s Place Mike King speaks to the crowd during the grand opening of the apartments. (CAREY REEDER | ADVERTISER)

One of the eight new apartment style rooms that are inside the new facility. (CAREY REEDER | ADVERTISER)

Tours of the new facility were offered during the grand opening. (CAREY REEDER | ADVERTISER)

The moment Executive Director of Raleigh’s Place Mike King cut the ribbon to officially open the new apartments. (CAREY REEDER | ADVERTISER)

By Carey Reeder | Managing Editor

Local nonprofit Raleigh’s Place opened the doors to its new transitional apartments for young men to help their transition from the foster care system to independent adulthood. The apartments were built to support young men who recently aged out of foster care with a place to live while also instilling important life skills to benefit them well into their next chapter.

“I think it is going to be great,” Mike King, Executive Director of Raleigh’s Place, said. “It took a lot longer than I thought, but I am excited to have it done and looking forward to seeing what the Lord is going to do here.”

The new facility is attached to the nonprofit’s thrift store Katie’s Kloset in Clanton and features eight apartment style rooms, a kitchen area, a laundry room, a gathering area, a waiting room, office space and a spacious backyard. Tens of Chilton County delegates, residents, supporters of the local nonprofit and more were in attendance for the ribbon cutting ceremony on Oct. 1 to see the new apartments.

Raleigh’s Place purchased the building at the end of 2019 and started working on it immediately with goals of opening the apartments in the fall of 2020. Just a few months later, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and threw a wrench into the plans. It took the nonprofit three and a half years of getting the proper permits, paperwork and things falling into place before construction began again in March of this year.

King had a budget for the facility, and the bid came back at around $230,000, which was significantly above the budget. In a time of need, significant donations and grants began to come in from entities in and around Chilton County to fill out the rest of the funds for the building construction, and it was completed in August. Those donors included Alabama Power, Beavs Place, CAWACO RC&D Council, Fred J. Brotherton Charitable Foundation, Holle Family Foundation, Independent Presbyterian Church Foundation, Mike & Gillian Goodrich Foundation, Truist Foundation, the McKinnon Family and Mr. & Mrs. Wayne McKinnon and the Mills Family. Those donors were displayed on a board during the ribbon cutting ceremony to highlight their contributions, and King said the list of donors is far larger than those.

“Near the end of last year, we had about $100,000 in the bank, and we needed that extra (money),” King said. “Almost to the penny, we had it by the end of December. It was phenomenal, and people have seen the vision and have been excited about it.”

In research and data that Raleigh’s Place looks at for young men who have recently aged out of foster care, they saw that a significant amount of them end up homeless, addicted to drugs, in trouble with law enforcement, unemployed or other issues that compound on one another leading to hardships. The nonprofit can now offer stable housing, along with life skills training and access to employment opportunities to help empower the young men they interact with as they go through the transition to adulthood. The goal of these apartments is to address some of those issues while providing a safe space for them to live and training to prepare them for what life looks like as an independent adult.

“For those guys, if they were in foster care as teenagers, they probably bounced around house to house or spent some time in a group home, and they never had anybody parenting them or investing in them to teach them things,” King said. “That is the goal. To produce independent young men who are ready to be their own man.”

King said he appreciates everyone who came out to the ribbon cutting, and it was a larger crowd than he expected. He added that he hopes the community will continue to rally behind the young men to help Raleigh’s Place achieve those goals they have for those they will be serving.

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