GALLERY: Children’s Advocacy Center of Collin County holds groundbreaking ceremony for new McKinney facility

The Children’s Advocacy Center of Collin County held a groundbreaking ceremony June 22 to kick off construction that will provide another full-service facility to better serve children in the county, officials said.

The Speese Campus will be located at Heritage Drive and Harroun Avenue in McKinney. The need for the 40,000-square-foot facility comes from the projection that the number of children in the county will triple over the next 25 years, officials said.

“This new facility means that no abused child who needs services will ever be turned away, no matter how large Collin County grows,” Lynne McLean, the CEO of the Children’s Advocacy Center of Collin County said during the ceremony. “It means that children won't have to travel hours to receive the help they need after suffering the trauma of abuse. It means that these children who come to our center, broken and frightened, will have a new future, right, with promise and hope.”

Studies project that by 2050 Collin County’s population is expected to surpass more than 3.8 million residents. And by 2023 the center will have outgrown its current facility, CACC board president Liz Sweeney said.

Funding for the project comes from a campaign the nonprofit started two years ago that raised $11 million, including a $1 million gift of land, per a winter news release.

The Children’s Advocacy Center, which has a flagship location at 2205 Los Rios Blvd., Plano, serves children who are victims of abuse and neglect, according to its website. The nonprofit provides resources, such as therapists, nurses and caseworkers to ensure children and families have the support they need, and services are free for as long as the children need it.

There is “no higher calling” than the work the center does to provide a safe place for healing and justice for children victimized by abuse or neglect, Mayor George Fuller said at the ceremony.

“They care for our most precious asset, our children, and they’ve been doing this for decades,” he said. “We are indebted to the center, and families across this county in North Texas are blessed to have the Children’s Advocacy Center.”

The Speese campus is scheduled to open next summer.