Royal Oak Judson Center breaks ground on major renovations

ROYAL OAK — On April 6, the Judson Center in Royal Oak broke ground on some renovations to the original Judson campus. 

The Royal Oak campus opened its doors in 1924 at 13 Mile and Greenfield Road. 

Through the human service agency’s Centennial Capital Campaign program, the organization received $8.5 million for renovations to the property. The center has $1 million left to raise to achieve its goal of $9.5 million. 

The ceremony to break ground attracted approximately 150 people and featured remarks from Judson Center representatives and community leaders, according to a Judson Center press release. 

The master plan for the campus renovations includes larger rooms, offices and zones for Child Safe Michigan and Child Family Services programs; additional spaces for the Autism Connections program; a visitation room suite for foster care and adoption services; creation of an on-site behavioral health clinic, the addition of a ring road for easier access to facilities; and flexibility to allow for program growth. 

“This event went extremely well. It was more than I could have ever imagined that it could be, when I think about this capital campaign we have been working on, raising money right now for probably nearly four years,” said Lenora Hardy-Foster, Judson Center CEO and president. “We are extremely pleased with the results of the capital campaign, even knowing that I still have to raise about one additional million dollars. … It was a wonderful, wonderful day.”

Brandon Kolo, Royal Oak City Commissioner, spoke at the event. 

“I was happy to be there and speak at the event. Community is about how we show up for one another, and Judson Center shows up every single day for families, for kids and for people who need support the most,” Kolo said. “Having them here in Royal Oak strengthens who we are as a community.”

All the renovations are “extremely” important to Hardy-Foster, but she said that being able to implement the integrated care model is one of the most exciting. This would include expanding the medical help for people with substance use disorders. 

“We currently provide behavioral health at the Royal Oak campus, but we want to expand that to start slowly bringing in primary health care, and we are going to begin that with substance use disorder and providing medication-assisted treatment,” she said. “Our plan is to further it by  being able to have medical doctors that operate out of that site, so that we can provide other types of medical procedures.”

As a nonprofit, community-based organization, being open 102 years is exciting, Hardy-Foster said, and her goals are to use these renovations to accelerate the Judson Center into the next 100 years. 

“To be a nonprofit that has been able to sustain themselves for that many years says a lot about what we like to do when it comes to dealing with children and adults and families that live within the community,” she said. “That’s what we are all about. We also want to position ourselves for the next 100 years. So, we have been there for 100 years, on that campus, we sit there on 8 acres of land, so by investing in that property to fix it up, to do some major renovation … this is positioning the agency for the next 100 years to still be there, bringing value to the Royal Oak and Oakland County community.”

Construction on the property will begin right away and is expected to be completed in a year. The start of fundraising for the second phase of the project will be determined later, according to the release. 

For more information on the Judson Center, visit judsoncenter.org.