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Four more nonprofits now operate out of the Lakin Human Services Campus.

The Iowa West Foundation Collaboration Center held a ribbon-cutting ceremony last Thursday at the Lakin Campus to welcome Firefly, Together Inc., Iowa Legal Aid and Visiting Nurse Association to their new Council Bluffs office space.

The $14.1 million center features conference rooms available for community agencies, a teaching kitchen and a rooftop garden on its third floor, which hosted a reception following the ceremony with hors d’oeuvres, drinks, swag bags and a pianist.

Brenda Mainwaring, president and CEO of the Iowa West Foundation, said the roots of the new building are in the foundation’s efforts to address hunger. Iowa West teamed up with Together Inc. to create a full-service food pantry for the community.

“It became very clear that the place this needed to be was at the Lakin Campus,” Mainwaring said. “The Lakin Campus is unique, not just in our region but probably in the country.” Mainwaring said the building’s name reflects the legacy of its investment in the Lakin Campus. The Lakin Campus moved its administrative office into the new building, too.

Located behind the Boys and Girls Club and Salvation Army, the new building faces east toward North 14th Street and has a south entrance for people to access Together Inc.’s food pantry. It is based near the Micah House, also on the Lakin Campus, and is located on a bus line.

The Iowa West Foundation Collaboration Center joins the Florence M. Lakin Child Development Center as the first new structures on the campus since its opening in late 2008 and early 2009.

“The campus is a one-stop-shop for anyone in need,” said John Hoich, vice president of the Charles E. Lakin Foundation. “The Lakin Campus is truly a model for not only the region but the entire United States.”

Steve Wild, president of the Lakin Foundation, said the center symbolizes the collective commitment to uplifting the community.

“The Charles E. Lakin Human Services Campus was born to a vision — a vision of a place where collaboration wasn’t just an aspiration but a lived reality,” Wild said. “Today, that vision takes a giant stride forward. This new building, appropriately named the collaboration center, as a testament to the unwaveringly belief that we can achieve extraordinary things when we work together.”

For the nonprofits moving into the center, the difference is stark. Iowa Legal Aid, for example, had not moved offices since August 1978.

“We have been in our previous office suite for 46 years,” said Erin Planalp, managing attorney of Iowa Legal Aid’s Southwest Iowa Regional Office. “Part of our mission is to serve every client with dignity, and it is deeply exciting to be able to invite them into a space that does the same.”

Mike Hornacek, president and CEO of Together Inc., said next year will be his organization’s 50th anniversary serving the greater metropolitan area.

“We were formed by seven different faith organizations from seven different denominations in response to a disaster,” Hornacek said. “So working in concert with others is in our DNA. When this opportunity arose, it felt like the perfect fit.”

Carol Patrick, president and CEO of the Visiting Nurse Association, said the organization is honored to be a part of the Lakin Campus.

“We’re excited to collaborate with the other nonprofits, not only in this building but across this campus, because that is what it’s all about — us all working together to serve people in this community,” Patrick said.

Kimberly Kolakowski, executive director of Firefly, which until recently was known as Family Inc., said her nonprofit’s staff hadn’t moved in yet but still felt the new building “feels just like home.”

“They say it takes a village to raise a child,” Kolakowski said. “What we have created here on the Charles E. Lakin Campus is exactly that — a village to serve our community in ways that I’m sure we haven’t even yet dreamed up.”