SERIES
Dock® Meeting, EverySpace®, fiXt®, Helio™, Boyd™, Nash™, Whittaker™, Toss™, Weli®, Bernadette, Clarette, Dora, Holden, Kitner, Laverick, Taron, Entourage™, Superkool™
APPLICATION
Behavioral Wellness, Open Workspaces, Social and Collaboration, Training and Learning, Welcome Spaces
INDUSTRY
The Southwestern Indiana Child Advocacy Center Coalition (SWICACC) is a non-profit organization that conducts forensic interviews with children reported to be victims of abuse.
SWICACC was founded in 2009 when it was recognized that these underaged victims of maltreatment did not have a child advocacy center in the community. Through grants, fundraisers, and donations, SWICACC continues to grow and offers services to children in Crawford, Daviess, Dubois, Martin, Orange, Perry, and Spencer counties in Indiana.
SWICACC needed more square footage and space types to accommodate their clients, so they consolidated offices and moved into a previously used elementary school. The non-profit worked with Seifert Construction, a general contractor based in Ferdinand, IN, to design and reconfigure the elementary school into multiple offices, forensic interview rooms, and training spaces. A local high school construction class also helped to build a two-bedroom apartment space for training purposes. To furnish the building, they partnered with local furniture manufacturers in the community, including Kimball International. Tammy Lampert, Executive Director of SWICACC, worked with the Kimball International marketing team to visit and tour the Kimball International headquarters. During the visit, she stated she was emotional thinking about how a partnership with Kimball International could help the children her team serves. Looking for solutions to provide comfort, Lampert hoped to furnish the space with soft, residential textures and warm, kid-friendly colors that weren’t present in previous locations.
The partnership with SWICACC coincided with Kimball International’s announcement that they would bring together their workplace brands to be under the Kimball International brand umbrella. Knowing that individual brand showrooms would merge, Andrea Rohleder, Senior Manager Marketing Operations and Amy Rogers, Brand Experience and Interiors Manager, worked to decide which product solutions from that consolidation could be used to fulfill SWICACC’s floor plan and needs. Kimball International employees volunteered their time to help unload truckloads of furniture into the space and install products. The products can be found in a wide range of rooms including interview spaces, lobby areas, family waiting rooms, clinic environments, and training and conference rooms used by officials to observe live interviews.
Lonnie Nicholson, Chief Human Resources Officer for Kimball International, believes the partnership fulfills the mission of Kimball International-Habig Foundation. Started by Mr. Arnold Habig, Kimball International’s founder, the Kimball International-Habig Foundation focuses its funding and resources on grants and programs that most directly benefit the U.S. communities in which Kimball International has operations or facilities, or from which its employees live.
The resulting space, with the partnership of Kimball International and other community organizations, is a welcoming and versatile space where SWICACC can fulfill its mission, raise public awareness, and much more. In a statement, Lampert said, “SWICACC will continue the tradition of providing a safe place for children. With continued community support, SWICACC and our partners will build safer communities for safer kids.”
