O’Connell Children’s Shelter hosted a ribbon cutting Tuesday for a family service center, which staff said will offer wraparound services and three beds for kids in crisis.
The center is dubbed Elsie’s Place after Elsie O’Connell, who donated 160 acres of her land 50 years ago for what now hosts three residential homes for youth. The shelter also has two houses in the city of Lawrence.
The beds are for kids ages 10 to 18 who are experiencing a mental health or behavioral health crisis. They can stay at Elsie’s Place for up to 30 days at a time — or a total of 90 days in a year — to stabilize before their next steps.
“It’s a vision that we’ve had to fill a gap in the continuum of care for both our foster children and for the children in our community,” said Maren Ludwig, the shelter’s development and communications director.
Ludwig said the shelter’s administrative team is now based in Elsie’s Place. The building had spaces for therapy, an “O-Mart” where kids can buy snacks and supplies, and multiple staff offices.
During the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Executive Director Gina Meier-Hummel introduced Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach with “profound respect” before he addressed the crowd.
He said the goal of the AG’s office is to keep Kansans safe, including those who are affected by the criminal justice system.
“In comparison, prosecuting people and getting prison sentences imposed is the easy part,” he said. “… But this is the hard part. The hard part is helping people develop, making them feel safe, helping them basically progress as individuals so that they feel secure, they are not tempted to go into a life of crime.”
Kobach is currently defending state Senate Bill 63. It aims to ban gender-affirming care for minors and has kept transgender children statewide from accessing life-saving care like hormone therapy.
Douglas County District Court Judge Carl Folsom blocked enforcement of the ban in May, which Kobach called “a stark example of judicial activism,” the Kansas Reflector reported.
After the ceremony, when asked how O’Connell’s values align with Kobach’s actions, Meier-Hummel said they aim to make every youth feel welcome.
“We take care of all kids. I mean, we’ve been very clear that we take care of all kids,” she said. “So we’re just proud to have the support of the attorney general’s office here, but we are definitely — we take care of all kids.”
During the ceremony, Megan Milner from the Kansas Department of Corrections said that “O’Connell understood the assignment.”
“Many years ago, Kansas embarked on some reform that would more closely align our state with evidence-based practices and research in working with young people,” Milner said.
She said that stabilization centers are a solution.
“It’s really exciting to see these beds coming online as a solution for kids and families to get services early, to get connected to community resources,” Milner said. “But also to hopefully encourage stabilization and prevent disruption in a family unit when that’s appropriate.”
Ludwig said O’Connell had somewhere between $1.3 and $1.5 million of funding for the building. The money came from KDOC, the Kansas Department for Children and Families and private money.
Meg Hasselman, the manager of behavioral health programming, said Bert Nash’s Treatment and Recovery Center serves youth, but they can’t be admitted at the facility.
The rooms at Elsie’s Place are designed to be as safe as possible, Hasselman said, with furniture that is nearly impossible to throw and shatter-proof glass.
When kids arrive, they’ll get to choose a quilt donated by the Kaw Valley Quilters Guild, which they will keep after discharge.
“Just a little personal touch,” she said. “I think a lot of times in facilities like this, it kind of gets a wrap of being cold scary, and we don’t want kids to feel that way, so we’re doing our best to make it a little more homey.”
Kids will have access to a case manager, therapist, nurse and med provider all on site.
“We really wanted to be able to meet the need of kids and families from a variety of perspectives, and be able to kind of provide wraparound care too,” Hasselman said.
For example, if a family is struggling with generational poverty, staff can direct them to the Generations Program where they are paired with a case manager to tackle barriers like employment, health, education and housing.
Once Bert Nash’s Youth Recovery Center is open, the two facilities can refer to one another, Hasselman said. The beds will also serve kids in O’Connell’s other programs who are experiencing an acute crisis.
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Wulfe Wulfemeyer (they/them), reporter and news editor, has worked with The Lawrence Times since May 2025. They can be reached at [email protected].
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