ELKINS, W.Va. — The West Virginia Children’s Home in Elkins will close at the end of the year.

The state Department of Human Services announced the closing in recent days.

The 25-bed facility for foster children was built in 1909 and serves children from 12 to 18 years old and, in recent months, has consistently housed 10 or fewer children.

The facility also has the number of maintenance concerns any structure more than 110 years old would have.

Kylee Hassan, the marketing director for Mission West Virginia Adoption Resource Exchange, said the move away from an institutional setting will encourage more growth and development that could lead to better outcomes.

“We see the benefits when a child is with a family that has supports in place versus growing up in a facility that puts them at a disadvantage,” Hassan said.

The state already has more than 6,000 children in the foster care system and a shortage of families to care for them. The need for foster families of all types has been dire in recent years, and the need for families to work with older children is currently high.

While organizations continue working to get more families qualified, the Foster Care and Adoption Services program operated by Genesis will be expanded with state resources.

“The real pressure is on us to find families for those children,” Hassan said. “We are always in need of foster families to help, especially teenagers.”

Leaving the institutional care model behind will put more kids in the foster system in actual families where they learn the importance of relationships. The family setting is a full-time environment where children learn the importance of the family unit, building relationships, learning how to follow rules, and how to handle disappointment.

“The one that comes most to my mind is reduced trauma,” Hassan said. “So, children placed with a family are less likely to experience additional trauma from being separated from siblings or other things.”

The “home” setting comes with the same people guiding young people through experience, different than the sterile institutional environment where different shifts of people may manage the populations in homes. Homes also give foster kids an opportunity to build trust with others and learn the importance of responsibility and respect.

“What friendships look like, what healthy relationships with family or friends look like,” Hassan said. “Even learning basic skills like how to get your driver’s license.”

Hassan contends children growing up in homes are more resilient and have a better chance to succeed when they age out of the foster system. The children not only learn from adults in a family setting, but they also see the family unit in action, giving them practical knowledge needed to be successful in the world of work.

“When children grow up in the facility type setting, they don’t know how to be on their own when they age out,” Hassan said. “And it’s harder for them to establish relationships and connections, which puts them at a higher risk.”

West Virginia found out a tough lesson on the road at Pittsburgh falling 86-62 for their first loss of the season in the Backyard Brawl.

The Mountaineers shot only 39-percent from the field and 21-percent from three, while the Panthers were close to 50-percent from the field in convincing win.

“We didn’t come out and play the way we wanted to. I thought Pitt got going early, got a little confidence shooting it from three. Thought we had some decent looks early in the game that didn’t go down and could never really get some traction to claw back into it,” head coach Darian DeVries said.

The Panthers were able to get to the rim and kick the ball out for open looks which was something that the Mountaineers were aware could be an option but wanted to prevent dribble penetration.

“It was a little bit of give and take from our standpoint and from a strategy standpoint we were wrong and they made us pay,” DeVries said.

West Virginia now sits at 2-1 on the season with an upcoming home contest against Iona before the program is set to play some more challenging games beginning with a match up against Gonzaga in the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament. From there more challenges will lie ahead.

The focus for this team is to use what unfolded against the Panthers and learn from it moving forward. That is easier said than done at times, but the Mountaineers will need to try to turn things around in short order as the schedule is only going to continue to get more difficult.

“We didn’t respond the way we wanted to but I’ve still got faith in my group. We’ve done it before and faced adversity and came back from a large deficit or deficit in general,” point guard Javon Small. “We just didn’t respond the way we wanted to today but we’ll make sure we get back into the film.”

Pittsburgh is a good basketball team and it was on the road, but there are bigger challenges ahead.

“Tonight we’re obviously incredibly disappointed with how we played and how the game went tonight but this group is a good group and they’re going to bounce back we’re continue to grow and get better and better and tonight is a great learning opportunity for us. A lot of things there as a coaching staff, as a team that we’re going to get better at and move on and try to improve each day,” DeVries said.