$1 million from the mayor of Miami could be tripled for Lotus House Children’s Village

A $1 million gift from Miami’s mayor could help bring the Lotus House Children’s Village to life and fund a transformative shelter project serving hundreds of homeless children and families.

At today’s meeting (10/23), city commissioners are expected to authorize $1 million from Mayor Francis Suarez’s discretionary account to support the Children’s Village at Lotus Village, part of a $25 million fundraising effort to build and expand the facility and its programs for homeless children and youth. The financing would advance construction of the state-of-the-art, five-story, 71,000-square-foot shelter in Overtown.

The project would build on Lotus House’s decades of work providing shelter, education and therapeutic support to women, children and families. The Children’s Village will serve as “home” for 13 other long-standing nonprofit organizations, using a collective impact model in which Lotus House and the other organizations together provide programming and support services to more than 500 children at a time, reaching more than 2,500 children, youth, families and community members annually.

The Children’s Village is the first of its kind and provides a comprehensive, child- and youth-focused neighborhood education and resource center, providing educational, therapeutic and community services designed to provide children and families with pathways to stability and opportunity while helping end and prevent homelessness.

The Lotus Endowment Fund borrowed $18 million from the Frederick A. DeLuca Foundation to finance construction. In a September 29 email to Mayor Suarez, Constance Collins, president of Lotus Endowment, wrote: “The DeLuca Foundation recently generously agreed to provide 2-for-1 debt forgiveness (up to a total of $6 million) for new donations made and raised. A City of Miami grant of $1 million donated to the Children’s Village Capital Campaign, will help us achieve $3 million in debt reduction.”

The commission is expected to give the city manager the authority to negotiate agreements and allocate money from the mayor’s discretionary account to the Lotus Endowment Fund.

Programs and services include evidence-based, trauma-informed therapy, legal support, healthcare access, academic assistance, summer enrichment and preschool programs, arts and digital media education, LGBTQ support, mindfulness training for caregivers, a children’s playground, and community events such as back-to-school drives and holiday giveaways.

More than a dozen nonprofit partners, including Arts for Learning, Alliance for LGBTQ Youth, Barry University, Children’s Bereavement Center, Easterseals South Florida, Girl Power Rocks, Mindful Kids Miami, Nana’s Restart and the Overtown Children & Youth Coalition will share the facility and work together to provide coordinated programming and support.

By housing multiple organizations under one roof, the Children’s Village aims to maximize collaboration and resource sharing, creating a central hub that helps vulnerable children and families access services while modeling a new approach to ending and preventing homelessness.