Lily Pad #21: May 2024
Department of Social Services
Orangeburg County, SC
Orangeburg County is in the Lowcountry Region of South Carolina.
There are approximately 113 kids in foster care in Orangeburg County. They also have kids in care from Richland County, which is 50 minutes away, spending time in the office every day.
Lily Pad COO, Cara Grubb, got to work on a new design we were excited to try as well as a new activity wall since the room is spacious enough to do so.
When our team arrived to paint they were given a mini tour of the office. There were two visits with families that took place while they were in the office. They noticed the case managers observing the visits from the hall instead of the observation room. They also saw a need for an additional space to be used as a visitation room and second Lily Pad as needed.
Lily Pad was able to surprise the Orangeburg director and staff with a spruced up observation room with the receivers to the monitors set up so they could observe family visits and be able to see and hear from a comfortable space. We also surprised them with a second space to hold visits and make kids that spend time in the office comfortable.
Jennifer Tice (Co-Founder & CEO) assembled an install team of volunteers made up of two board members (Stephanie Rees & Anna Claire Butler) as well as three other educators that call Orangeburg home.
Our team built this activity wall featuring a lego, chalkboard and magnatile section.
A desk area is used for schoolwork, coloring or a comfortable eating area.
Accent lighting highlights the activity wall and the cube shelf stores the legos and magnatiles.
The entertainment center houses electronics and additional toys. Weighted blankets are also available to help calm nervous systems.
The "before" photo of the Orangeburg office.
We include a glider in each Lily Pad. It provides a calming sensory support.
Books for kids of all ages and reading levels.
Suckers are an oral sensory support and the nightlight, sound machine, air purifier is so helpful.
Open storage makes the legos and magnatiles easy to access.
We pray kids will feel God's protection and love in this space.
We couldn't help ourselves playing with the orange color scheme for Orangeburg County!
A fun corner for kids to pretend and imagine!
We include toys for all ages.
The "before" photo of the second space.
This room includes a trundle bed for extra sleep space as needed, a glider, toys and books.
This is the second room we were able to put together. A family can spend quality time together here.
The lobby now has some repurposed toys.
This is the viewing room that allows case managers to observe from a distance in a comfortable space.
“They [youth in foster care] want to feel like they are at home…even the parents, I can tell its going to be a difference for the parents.”
Charlene Nimmons, Director
upon seeing the new visitation room