Child & Family Service was awarded a $1.55 million grant recently from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation to help build its new emergency shelter and transitional housing facility in West O'ahu.

The project is expected to be completed in the spring. Work began in March 2008.

The new facility will provide nearly 11,000 square feet of dorm-like space that will serve as emergency and transitional housing for families who find themselves homeless due to a violent home environment, said Sandra Oba, the nonprofit group's director of development and communications.

Up to 56 women and children can be accommodated at any given time. The facility will have a commercial-size kitchen and dining and recreational areas. Clients will be able to take job-training classes and on-site childcare will be available for their families, Oba said.

The current 2,336-square-foot facility is more than 50 years old and unable to meet the region's growing demands, she said.

"The new facility will address the severe shortage of transitional housing options for families who want to build a new life without violence," Howard Garval, president and chief executive officer for Child & Family Service, said in a news release.

Due to the nature of the program, the exact location of the facility is confidential as a safety and security precaution.

The Weinberg foundation gift means Child & Family Service has now secured 99 percent of the $7 million price tag of the project, Oba said.

The goal of Child & Family Service is to provide safe transitional living to help victims and their children re-establish financial independence, Oba said. Residents can remain in the program up to one year to save money and hone the skills to live on their own.

Services would be provided to assist the residents in either continuing their education or obtaining employment so that they are able to move toward financial independence. Assistance with social, job-hunting, daily-living and parenting skills, and money management also would be provided.

In fiscal year 2007, the agency's current shelter provided 5,298 nights of safety for 286 domestic abuse victims and their children. Of those helped, 96 percent were from low-income families.