Wilmington, DE - Michelle Quinn couldn't speak as she saw the new children's playroom. "t's like 'Extreme Makeover,' " she said finally, fighting tears. "It's wonderful." It wasn't her home that got a makeover, but that of otherwise homeless children who live with parents at the YWCA Delaware, where she is chief development officer.

 

After weeks of work, volunteers spent the weekend on finishing touches, and Quinn got her first look at the children's room with repaired and painted walls, activity areas, toys and shelves stocked with supplies. A basket held baby dolls, ready to be hugged and loved.

 

The room -- along with a newly redone family room and teen room -- will be dedicated today in a 2 p.m. ribbon-cutting at YWCA Delaware's Home-Life Management Center at 709 N. Madison St., which provides housing and life-skills programs for homeless families.

 

The rooms were redone as part of the Bright Spaces project of Bright Horizons Foundation for Children. Staff members and volunteers from nine area Bright Horizons Family Solutions child care and early education centers raised $10,000 for the effort from bake sales to sale of children's donated artworks, and the foundation's $5,000 donations, said project coordinator Daphne Evans of Wilmington, a Bright Horizons staff member.

 

The YWCA received a new TV, furniture, slipcovers, rugs, lamps, shelves, artwork, books, toys, games and more. Walls were repainted a creamy yellow with navy, green, white and gray accents.

 

"They were going to do one room, but they came in and they were so inspired, they decided to do all three," Quinn said. "We got going," said Evans, who proposed the project site. A closet was transformed into a toy kitchen, and a dingy tan room "looks twice as big with this yellow," Quinn said.

 

The rooms will be used by residents of the center's 23 units for newer families who live in dormitory-style rooms, and 10 apartments for longer-term families with parents who have finished several programs and can pay rent and buy their own food. Residents stay however long they need to, generally six to nine months in the first phase and 2 to 5 years in the second.

 

"We always say it's not a homeless shelter, but what we do is address the root causes that brought them to homelessness," Quinn said. Programs involve education, employment and life skills components, as well as addressing abuse and violence, experienced or witnessed by 91 percent of those who become homeless, she said.

 

YWCA Delaware Executive Director Ginny Marino said the Bright Spaces rooms add cheerful, age-appropriate areas to help children develop social, cognitive, gross motor and language skills.

 

"Our children face so many stressful challenges," she said, "that it is nice to have a quiet, positive place to help them grow and learn about themselves."

More than 150 volunteers made it happen, Evans said.

 

Bright Horizons, considered the largest provider of employer-sponsored child care and early education, has created more than 180 such spaces at shelters in 30 states and in Europe.