Martin House build begins

LONGVIEW – Dozens of Longview community members and leaders gathered off of Garfield Drive on Thursday to break ground on the new Martin House Children’s Advocacy Center facility. The new facility will be nearly three times the size of the current Martin House building and will serve more children and teens, with new child-friendly therapy spaces, forensic interview rooms, and enhanced safety features.

“Right now, we’ll have we have currently as much as a six month waiting list for counseling. So a larger facility will allow us to hire more staff to be able to get children in sooner for forensic interviews, for counseling appointments, so that we don’t have a lag time in services,” Martin House CEO Roxanne Stevenson said.

Several local leaders, including Longview Mayor Kristen Ishihara and Judge Bill Stoudt, attended the event on Friday, along with Stevenson and other Martin House leaders, staff, and supporters.