A Jacksonville philanthropist’s helping hand has ensured the future of a 12-year-old agency, Families of Slain Children, Inc., that supports and counsels the families of the children and young adults who died violently on the city’s streets and paves the way for expanding its services.

The Michael J. Ward Foundation is negotiating to buy the 2-story building that houses Families of Slain Children at 3108 Myrtle Ave. N., only months after its landlord decided to sell it and potentially force the nonprofit agency to shut down.

Ward, the recently retired CSX Corp. CEO, said he made the decision after reading a Sept. 11 Times-Union story about the sale and potential shutdown. He also plans to buy the next-door site where a seven-panel memorial wall commemorates almost 3,000 homicide and crime victims, and both sites will be put in the nonprofit agency’s name, he said. He also plans to work on buying an adjacent shuttered restaurant so agency founder Beverly McClain can expand programs.

“The work they do is required, and needed in this city and they need the support not only to to do that, but also to let them expand what they offer,” Ward said. “We are engaged with the landlord who has the property, and he is cooperative. We will help her acquire the property. … It is important what they do. I met with her and volunteers and they were completely taken aback. It is touching.”

McClain, who learned the house would go up for sale the day before her July 25 hip surgery and had nowhere for her and the nine volunteers to go to continue grief counseling, providing food, job referrals and other help, said they are ecstatic at Ward’s help. She had started a GoFundMe site Sept. 4 to help, saying only two week’s ago that “God will make a way.”

“I said someone needed to step up and Mr. Ward said he would. I just prayed for this building to be saved and he looked and said, ‘You need that too,’ ” McClain said. “We are waiting on the landlord and real estate people to get together, and put it together. He said he will buy the buildings and put them in our name. They [volunteers] are excited. It is just excitement. … As soon as I get the restaurant deed, we are going to work.”

Families of Slain Children was started in 2006, a year after McClain’s son Andre was killed, to help other families dealing with their children’s violent deaths. It started in a local church. The owner of a condemned home on Myrtle Avenue then offered it to her for $10 a year, and the renovated building’s office walls are now covered filled with photos of slain children.

The landlord’s letter indicated the Moncrief Park home was for sale at $120,000, and the agency would have about a month to move out once it was sold, McClain said. She and volunteers said they did not know where the money to buy it would come from, while initial attempts to find a new home for its programs had not been successful and the GoFundMe account had only raised $65 as of Monday.

Ward would not discuss the amount of financial help he has offered the agency, but indicated he is “very impressed” with what McClain’s agency has done and his foundation will continue to help.

Ward was CSX CEO from 2003 to March 2014 before retiring just over a year ago. Working with his wife, Jennifer Glock, his foundation has given about $30 million to various local and national education, domestic violence prevention and veterans causes.

 

Scanlan, D., Florida Times Union Newspaper (2018, September 24). Local foundation helps Jacksonville’s Families of Slain Children remain open. Retrieved from https://www.jacksonville.com/news/20180924/local-foundation-helps-jacksonvilles-families-of-slain-children-remain-open