Renovation has begun on Children’s Home Society’s new Rapid City Campus, transforming the 100,000-square-foot National American University (NAU) building into CHS’s new Black Hills area home.
“We have made a commitment—a promise—to care for children and families impacted by trauma,” said CHS President and CEO Michelle Lavallee.
“But change happens quickly and we must prepare for, and help create, the future of child welfare and family stability. By increasing efficiencies and offering a true continuum of care at a single, convenient location, we are ready for whatever’s next.”
All Black Hills programs and services will be located at the new campus, resulting in tremendous synergies and economies of scale. CHS will be more accessible for families, staff, visiting care providers, partners and multi-disciplinary team members.
In addition, the space is large and versatile enough to accommodate the changes that Lavallee foresees. “We’re now very well positioned in Rapid City to provide the services needed in the community today and tomorrow,” she said.
In Sioux Falls, CHS recently constructed the new Children’s Home Shelter for Family Safety. This year, the adjacent lot became available, so CHS purchased the land to allow for future changes at that facility as well. The Sioux Falls Children’s Home campus is nearby, and another location on Third Street houses Outpatient Mental Health Services and Foster Care and Adoption.
“Community needs are similar in Sioux Falls and Rapid City, but not identical,” said Lavallee. “We are tailoring our facilities and services for the people we serve in each location.”
When the campus is complete, children, families, professionals and partners will immediately feel welcome. Its natural setting, with green spaces, trees and vistas of the Black Hills, creates a calm and peaceful feeling.
In addition to the 12-acre NAU site, CHS purchased 17 adjacent acres to allow for future expansion and to preserve the inspirational, healing environment at the previous Rockerville location.
Sustainable and natural materials such as wood, stone and glass will transform the current facility into a warm and welcoming space of care, healing and renewal. Rooms, lighting, and furniture will be flexible, to allow for customizing spaces when needed.
As design work progresses, features will be finalized; these are preliminary plans:
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Many CHS services have relocated to the new building, including Outpatient Mental Health Services, Children’s Home Child Advocacy Center, Prevention, Training and Education, and Foster Care and Adoption Services. Foundation offices are also in the Mount Rushmore Road facility.
“Already we’re hearing from clients and staff how much they like our new location,” said Rapid City-based VP of Development Kara Flynn.
For several months before construction began, Flynn gave tours of the new facility. “When walking through the building, even prior to renovation, everyone could see the potential that the space offers,” she said.
“It’s inspiring to think about the possibilities. And it does offer hope that we can help more children and families heal and achieve stability in a multitude of ways.”
While renovation continues at the new campus, CHS is partnering to provide services in unexpected locations within the Rapid City community.
One of these is the Rapid City Police Department (RCPD).
Family Engagement Specialist Marty Krause is embedded with the RCPD, providing case management services to people identified by police officers.
“Having Marty here gives us a layer of expertise that we don’t have on our team,” said Jamie Kirsch, RCPD Community Violence Interruption Program Manager. “Marty brings with him both the knowledge of casework and access to the tools and resources of Children’s Home Society.”
The goal of Kirsch’s team is to reduce violence through prevention and intervention, which supports the police department’s goal of creating a safer community.
And it’s working. Kirsch pointed out that in one neighborhood, which saw the city’s highest concentration of violent crime five years ago, their team has been able to reduce violent crime rates by more than 50% through intervention.
Because of the work they do, officers see first-hand which families need support. Using referrals from these officers, together with call-for-service and crime statistics, and other data, they can pinpoint specific individuals, families and neighborhoods that can benefit from outreach.
What does support look like? “It really depends on the family,” Krause said. “It can be as simple as getting to know them and providing links to different resources in the community, so they can get the services they need. In other cases, it can be very intensive, for example, helping a family fill out a residential care application for substance abuse treatment or psychiatric care and actually transporting the person to a facility.”
“Residential placement is always the last option,” he clarified. “We always want to keep families together, if at all possible.”
When the police show up at someone’s home, people generally open the door—whereas if a case worker shows up, people may not even answer. They simply don’t have the authority that the police do.
Yet, people may not trust the police. “That’s where Marty comes in, as someone who isn’t an officer and can lend a helping hand,” Kirsch said.
“The innovative component to this partnership is really that we’ve got law enforcement officers who are actively on patrol responding to calls for service, identifying families. It can be frustrating for officers because they don’t always have the tools to connect families to support, especially when they see the families struggling.”
Krause regularly goes to the Juvenile Services Center to work with incarcerated youth to help them transition back to the community. He also visits an inpatient treatment facility for youth to give presentations to patients.
“We're working with individuals and families one-on-one to stabilize them, to connect them to the right supports, to prevent an escalation into the criminal justice system, and to stop that cycle of violence from one generation to the next,” Kirsch said.
Krause agreed. “We're trying to make the community a better place for everybody to live in, and have healthier relationships, healthier families, healthier children, grandparents, the whole family unit, and a healthier community.”
Another location where you’ll find CHS is at the Lincoln Building, a school within the Rapid City district. Early in 2025, Children’s Home Society (CHS) began a collaboration with the Rapid City Area Schools to provide instruction at the Lincoln Building for students in the district who struggle in traditional classrooms.
CHS has an agreement to provide two classrooms, each with up to 12 children. One serves kindergarten and first-grade students, while the other accommodates second and third graders. These classrooms provide day school students with the same educational approach CHS uses in schools for children in residential care. Programming includes individual and family therapy.
The school district provides the building, furnishings and students, while CHS provides teachers, curricula, technology and instruction. Teachers work to foster a sense of hope and purpose, empowering students to set and achieve meaningful academic and personal goals.
CHS screens children recommended for the program to ensure they are a good fit and that their families are committed to participating.
In Sioux Falls both residential program students and day school students attend Loving School on the main campus. The school is an important resource for smaller districts around Sioux Falls, which may have limited special education options.
Still another example of CHS’s commitment to the Rapid City community takes place at the Pennington County Jail.
Child Advocacy Center Assistant Director Jessica Broullire of CHS works with Jessica Afrank, who is Coordinator of the Sheriff’s IGNITE program for incarcerated individuals, IGNITE stands for Individual Growth Naturally and Intentionally Through Education. The program includes education, post-incarceration work opportunities, job certificates, financial awareness instruction, substance use groups and more.
Afrank was familiar with CHS and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) trainings. “I knew the topic of ACEs would be important for the currently incarcerated when I started in my new position. I reached out to Jessica with CHS, and she kindly agreed to get involved.”
Along with ACEs, Broullire covers the neurobiology that helps explain why childhood trauma impacts people mentally, physically, socially and financially throughout their lives.
Other topics include how to nurture resilience, the importance of experiencing social/emotional support and hope, receiving help from others and connecting with the community.
“Many participants have never heard of ACEs,” said Afrank. “They have said they were unaware of how much impact adverse childhood experiences currently have on their lives.”
Broullire said that she sees participants make connections between the lessons and their own lives. “They will talk about, ‘Wow, that's probably why I made that choice—because my fight or flight response kicked in. That thoughtful part of my brain was offline.’”
“I’ve also seen recognition of intergenerational trauma. They've made comments like, ‘I realize that I have to break this cycle.’ And then we talk about, ‘OK, so how are you going to do that?’”
“We talk about building those healthy neural networks, how children look to us to understand the world and how making those connections starts at birth,” Broullire said. Most of the inmates will return to the community, so providing them with positive parenting skills is a good strategy for helping reduce ACEs in children.
For Broullire teaching incarcerated individuals is a fulfilling experience. “They are so grateful and say, ‘Thank you for taking the time for us to have this conversation.’ And I've told them, ‘You guys provide the most raw and vulnerable conversations for me. I do this training across the state and the conversations we have in here are the ones that sit with me the most. And I look forward to it every time.’”
“ACEs are what happened to us. They do not need to define what happens next. You can have hope. You can feel better. And we can all take steps to prevent ACEs from being passed down to the next generation.” -Jessica Broullire