Alliance For Children, a Fort Worth nonprofit children's advocate, is under contract to purchase the Cendera Center on Fort Worth's West Side.
Tom Stallings, Alliance For Children's president, and Brian Collins, Cendera's owner, confirmed the contract Wednesday. Word had moved through the large crowd at this year's annual Kids Who Care Cookin' For Kids fundraiser, held Sunday at the center.
Alliance For Children must sell its current Fort Worth office on the Near Southside in order to buy Centera Center, Stallings said in an interview. “The only way our little nonprofit can afford this is to sell our current Fort Worth location,” he said.
It's third time Alliance For Children has been under contract to buy a site to relocate the Fort Worth office, Stallings said. The previous two contracts fell through. “There are some really difficult points we're trying to work through with the prospective buyer of the location we're in,” Stallings said.
Alliance For Children's mission is to protect Tarrant County children from child abuse through teamed investigations, healing services and community education. The organization serves all of Tarrant County, with four other offices besides the one in Fort Worth. Since 1992, over 54,000 children have benefited from Alliance For Children's teamed investigations and coordinated approach, the organization estimates.
Allliance For Children has outgrown its Fort Worth office, Stallings said. The organization has a staff of 60 in the office, and employees from partner agencies such as Child Protective Services and police also are in the building daily. The 37,959-square-foot Cendera Center would almost double the 23,307-square-foot Fort Worth office of Alliance For Children.
“The unfortunate part of what Alliance For Children does (means) there's a continued growing need,” Stallings said.
Cendera Center has become a popular spot for large events since Collins opened it. Alliance For Children would use the center for its operations and programs, but it would no longer be open to the public as an events space, Stallings said. At this point, the center will continue to hold scheduled events through June, Collins said.
