Facility bagan as school in 1921
By John Chambers
From its beginnings as a Catholic school for wayward boys, Gibault Inc. has grown into three campuses and found new ways to survive.
In 1921, the Indiana Knights of Columbus founded Gibault three miles south of Terre Haute. Built on about 60 acres off U.S. 41, the residential treatment facility opened enrollment to girls in 2001 and saw it peak near capacity of 147 residents around the same time. It has dipped to around 80 as more adolescents have begun to gain access to counseling and other options closer to home.
"There is a big push to keep kids in their own communities - which is very good - with wrap-around services," said Chief Executive Officer Jim Sinclair.
Most residents come through juvenile courts, the Indiana Department of Education and other sources.
"We need to keep diversifying. We need to get into outpatient consulting," Sinclair said. "Strategically, we're not placed in the right part of the state," compared with more centralized locations, such as Indianapolis.
Spreading outside Terre Haute more than a year ago, Gibault operates a residential-treatment facility for 16 in Springfield, Ohio.
A center will open in Shelbyville later this year.
"We're shooting for an open house on Sept. 29," Sinclair said. "The one difference is they're going to stay in their own community."
Those campuses have an age range of 12 to 18, while Terre Haute residents range from 8 to 17.
"Within the continuum of care, the whole size of the pie, we had maybe a piece," said Gibault Development Director Zach Pies, but the Terre Haute institution has added programs, including one last year to treat Asperger Syndrome. The form of autism is characterized by not understanding how to interact socially.
A psychiatric residential treatment facility was established on the campus in July for a maximum of 10 residents with chronic behavioral problems.
"We're often the final opportunity for help before these kids end up in the [correctional] system," Pies said.
Gibault Ventures Inc. was created last year as a for-profit corporation to explore income options ranging from an established eBay store to a used car lot and renting storage units.
The institution's eBay store is at stores.ebay.com/Gibaults-
Changing-Lives-Store and has sold close to 400 items since launching last September.
The used car lot, Top of the Hill Auto Sales, will sell up to 30 vehicles on a lot near Gibault's Terre Haute campus, Sinclair said.
"We're going to put them on eBay, too," he said about sales that could begin by October.
Aside from annual donations, Gibault has investment backing of $12 million, $10 million in operating costs and continuing plans to diversify income.
"So I think that if you're going to change with the times like we are, that you are going to be OK," Sinclair said.
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Tribune-Star/Jim Avelis |
| Oldest: The Holy Cross building on the campus of Gibault is thier oldest building. |
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GIBAULT FAST FACTS
--Gibault was founded by the Indiana Knights of Columbus in 1921 as a "refuge for wayward boys," according to its Web site, www.gibault.org.
--The not-for-profit residential treatment facility has about 80 residents at its campus. It's part of 347 acres of woods, farmland and water, three miles south of Terre Haute.
--It offers counseling and other services to ages 8 to 17.
--Gibault also has a residential treatment facility in Springfield, Ohio, and will have a group home in Shelbyville around the end of this month.
--The school has served more than 7,300 children and adolescents since it began.