Church of the Open Door to open counseling center downtown, hires executive director

The Church of the Open Door announced Tuesday that it had purchased a building in downtown Elyria and intends to open it as a nonprofit counseling center serving the community. In a news release from the church, it announced it had purchased 300 Fourth St. and plans to open it as the Open Door Counseling and Community Center, which it calls "The Center." "Rooted in both biblical principles, evidence-based practices and clinical expertise, The Center's mission is to offer hope and healing within the Lorain County community by providing Christ-centered counseling and supportive services," the release said. The center will be operated as an independent nonprofit, and the church said it would serve to make counseling services more readily available to residents of Elyria's downtown. It said the location and nonprofit status would remove hurdles such as transportation, long wait times for appointments and cost barriers. "We wanted to serve our community where the need was most evident," Center President Mark Geissbauer said in the release. "After doing extensive research and confiding in different community stakeholders, it became clear that accessible counseling and life-skills training are huge needs. We have no doubt that this will change the lives of many people in Lorain County." The release also announced that Debbie Broaddus had been hired as the first executive director of the center. Broaddus is a licensed professional clinical counselor with supervision designation, or LPCC-S, with more than 30 years of experience in mental health and addiction services in Lorain County. Before taking her new position, Broaddus worked for Riveon Mental Health and Recovery as well as both the Nord Center and LCADA Way, the two mental health and addiction services organizations that merged to form Riveon in 2024. "The counseling piece is the main focus, obviously," Broaddus told The Chronicle. "Servicing adults, adolescents, any population that is in need. We are not going to be like Riveon, where they are servicing people who are severely mentally ill, it is more of the people that experience trauma, depression, anxiety. More things like that is going to be our little bit of a niche, I guess you could say." In addition to direct counseling services, Broaddus said the organization would serve as a community center for things like meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous and grief sharing, but also potentially things like tutoring for students. AA meetings are already held at the building, started by the previous owner, and those will continue, Broaddus said. The center will serve people from across the area, but the needs of Elyrians will be at the forefront, she said. "I just hope we can love on people in Elyria and be something of a bright spot, where people can come to heal from some of the brokenness they have," Broaddus said. Open Door said that it is finalizing plans for renovations on the future headquarters and hiring counselors. It said the center is expected to open in June. According to county records, Open Door purchased 300 Fourth St. in December from RHC Properties LLC for $295,000. The building, which is more than 32,000 square feet, had served as the law offices of Elyria attorney Jim Deery, father of Elyria Law Director Amanda Deery, for many years until his death in 2022. After Deery's death, the firm he formed with attorney Dan Gibbons, Deery and Gibbons LLC, relocated to Sheffield. For more information about the center, residents can contact info@theopendoorcenter.com. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.