As pass game coordinator and wide receivers coach Chad O'Shea, assistant wide receivers coach Stephen Bravo-Brown and players Cedric Tillman, Jamari Thrash, Kaden Davis and DeAndre Carter walked through the halls of Canopy Child Advocacy Center, Executive Director of Canopy Child Advocacy Center Jennifer Johnson showed the different spaces available to the children and families they work with, and explained the services Canopy provides to the community.
They also walked through a space called the "play zone," which featured a playground, basketball hoop, Pop-A-Shot and other activities for the children, and heard how Canopy uses the play zone space as not only a place for children to play, but also a tool to foster healing.
In their current space, Canopy serves an average of 700 children annually. Yet, they want to provide services to more children and are working to expand their footprint in Cleveland.
And the Browns are helping to kickstart that project. The Browns donated $100,000 towards Canopy developing and equipping its new, expanded space, allowing Canopy to serve hundreds more children and families each year. In recognition of the donation, Canopy announced it will name the new atrium and a children's play zone in recognition of the Cleveland Browns.
"This gift from the Cleveland Browns will make an extraordinary difference for the children we serve," Executive Director of Canopy Child Advocacy Center Jennifer Johnson said. "Every child deserves a space where they can feel safe, supported, and begin to heal. Thanks to the Browns' generosity, our new space will offer just that—and we hope this inspires others across our community to step forward to support this critical mission."
A Child Advocacy Center (CAC) is a national model utilized to reduce potential trauma for children and families impacted by child abuse and to improve services through interagency collaboration. Clients come to one child-friendly, trauma-informed location where they receive services and resources in order to begin the healing process.
The Canopy Child Advocacy Center in Cleveland serves to fill that function to be a safe and welcoming space where children who have experienced abuse can begin their healing journey. Through a multi-disciplinary approach, Canopy connects children and families with coordinated medical, legal, therapeutic and advocacy services—all under one roof.
The development of the Canopy Child Advocacy Center began in 2014 when United Way awarded $100,000 planning grant to the Domestic Violence and Child Advocacy Center to help provide the structure needed to develop a CAC. In 2018, construction on the Canopy Child Advocacy Center began and was completed at its first location on Payne Avenue.
In its first year, Canopy saw more than 734 children and families, as well as became an associate member of the National Children's Alliance. Then, after becoming an independent 501c3 in 2021, Canopy also became a fully accredited member of the National Children's Alliance.
After Canopy was established in 2018, the Browns made their connection with Canopy in 2023. They first provided a grant to support a pilot program to help the staff of Canopy as the Browns learned more about Canopy and its work in fostering healthy relationships and providing services to children and families impacted by child abuse.
Since then, that relationship has continued to grow. O'Shea attended an event in 2024 where he heard the testimony of children who have been part of Canopy and received care. It sparked an interest in O'Shea to see more of the work Canopy provides, and he toured the facility in the winter of 2024. While on the tour, he saw children in the waiting room and understood the need for the services of Canopy.
"It was just a very humbling experience," O'Shea said. "I use the word humbling because of what I saw, and then it also was a reminder of how important this center is for children and what a powerful impact that it has. And it also raised my awareness that this is a real issue, and it's an issue that is best dealt with at the beginning in a center like this. And I was just very impressed with the concept of the center, the people that were involved here. And my interest became more than an interest. It was then a passion towards trying to help in any way I could. And that's where the Browns platform became so important to be able to use the Browns Give Back platform and we were able to then get involved and then help this center."
Canopy currently serves an average of 700 children annually, and with this expansion, it will be able to reach even more families in need. They have served more than 3,600 children and their families in the current space and are working to expand their reach with a new facility. The donation from the Browns will help Canopy in creating a larger facility and allow them to expand their services to more children.
"We understand that (Canopy) will be able to reach 2,000 children just from the expansion itself. And it's going to be a process to get there," Browns Vice President of Community Relations Jenner Tekancic said. "Our hope is this commitment is a stepping block to get other people on board to help Canopy get everything that (it) needs to provide every extra level of care, and every everything else that (Canopy wishes it) could currently do. We want to make that possible."