Mirage donation will help add to Child Haven

Thursday, June 11, 1998 | 11:13 a.m.

Mirage Resorts Inc. has donated $400,000 for the design and construction of a new cottage at the Child Haven shelter through Clark County's Adopt-a-Cottage program.

Construction on the cottage is set to begin in November. The facility, which will house up to 14 children, features a day room for leisure activities, a kitchen, dining room, laundry room and a supervisor's office in addition to bedrooms.

This is the most recent cottage to be constructed at Child Haven since an infant cottage was built in 1986.

Child Haven at 701 N. Pecos Road is a division of the county's Department of Family and Youth Services. The shelter houses up to 3,000 abused or neglected children a year, ranging in age from 3 days old to 18 years old. The children are placed there by Metro Police or Child Protective Services.

Adrienne Cox, assistant director of family and youth services, said District Court Judge Nancy Becker spoke to Mirage executive Elaine Wynn about the children's needs which resulted in the donation. Wynn could not be reached for comment.

Cox said although the county funds Child Haven's operating expenses, the needs of the growing community have forced the shelter to turn to private partnerships and donations.

The county authorized the Adopt-a-Cottage program in 1994 with the goal to remodel the cottages. All five cottages, which opened in 1973, have been renovated through private donations.

Cox said the overcrowded temporary shelter is the county's only public shelter of its kind. Designed to house a maximum of 80 children at any given time, Child Haven has an average daily population of 110. In 1990, the campus averaged 55 children a day.

"We have children sleeping on sofas and on cots in the day room," she said. "We'll never turn a child away. We've had as many as 164 children on campus at a time."

Cox said the children stay at the shelter while abuse cases are investigated or until a safe home is found.

"Children stay on average a little less than one month unless it's a sexual abuse case that is tried in juvenile or criminal court. In those cases children may stay a couple of months," she said.