New Toby’s House facility construction underway, donations being accepted
Construction is underway on the new location for Toby’s House Crisis Nursery.
The new facility, located at 205 7th Ave. S., is expected to open this summer and Toby’s House is soliciting donors toward completing the project in the Building Permanent Hope campaign.
Leesha Ford, Toby’s House director, said this week that Guy Tabacco is part of the campaign in their “Sanctuary Giving Circle,” with a $150,000 contribution toward the new facility.
Mike Tabacco owned the property that Toby’s House is building on and gifted the nonprofit $150,000 for the sale, with Jimmy and Debbie Filipowicz funding the rest, she said.
Toby’s House groundbreaking ceremony for new facility
Ford said they were making good progress on the site and expected to be pouring concrete after the cold snap.
Tabacco’s “generosity ensures that our new facility is not just a building, but a permanent sanctuary for children,” Amy Pulliam, Toby’s House board chair, said in a release.
Toby’s House broke ground on the new facility in late January and with Sanctuary Giving Circle donors, Ford said they’re “moving from the dream of a larger nursery to the reality of a permanent safety net for Great Falls. [Tabacco’s] belief and support of our mission has helped us attain the land needed for a permanent home where we can provide hope for children and their families.”
The new facility will be nearly 6,000-square-feet and the Toby’s House team is working to expand operational hours and the number of children they can help.
Toby’s House is a non-profit dedicated to the prevent of child abuse that began operations in December 2020 at its current location in a converted duplex at the corner of 5th Street and 5th Avenue North.
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The crisis nursery is named for October Perez, who was two-years-old when she died from abuse by her mother’s boyfriend in 2011, and works to prevent child abuse and neglect through providing crisis and respite care, as well as some transitional care for families awaiting availability at daycare, according to the organization, which was named nonprofit of the year in 2022 by Montana Children’s Trust Fund.
“Our hope is to ensure families have a place to turn,” Pulliam said. “All children deserve safety and a place to play, especially in the moments when life is hardest for their grown-ups.”
The 0.5-acre property is zoned M-2 mixed use, according to the city planning office, so it didn’t need to be rezoned, but went through the normal city permitting process for construction.
Walsh Group, the contractor building the weapons generation facility at Malmstrom Air Force Base, started dirt work on the site before the groundbreaking and will be involved in the construction, along with other local construction companies, Pulliam told The Electric in January.
Other donors include Craig Barber, Paul Leach and Stockman Bank.
The new facility will have more space, plus more outdoor space and Pulliam said they’re planning to expand from their current hours of 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. to 24-hour care once they settle into the new facility that will be more secure and have fire sprinklers.
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In 2025, the nursery reached and exceeded its capacity, providing 11,500 hours of respite care.
Pulliam said in January that they accept families of all walks of live for “whatever crisis you think you have,” ranging from doctor’s appointments to daycare being closed.
Toby’s House is there for parents who “Just need an hour, two hours away before you break,” Pulliam said.
Moms have come in to the nursery and said “oh my gosh you guys have been a lifesaver,” Pulliam said.
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Expanding into 24-hour care would help those who work night shifts, such as restaurant employees, gas station attendants and casino workers, she said.
Toby’s House posts updates weekly on their Facebook page of what items are needed, she said.
Pulliam said she’s been on the Toby’s House board for about three years and around that time, Walsh Group got involved in the effort to find a new facility.
“It’s been a long time coming for us,” she said.
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Last year, Toby’s House asked the city to lease a portion of Carter Park, which highlighted a code provision and the general discussion of whether the city needs all the parkland it was, and the process of leasing, selling or trading city property.
During the Sept. 8, 2025 park advisory board meeting, Jessica Compton, interim Park and Recreation director, said that the group had presented at the Aug. 19 City Commission meeting and commissioners had suggested moving forward.
She said the the community felt strongly about giving away parkland the department had received many calls and messages about the proposal.
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The city was notified Sept. 8 that Toby’s House had purchased the property and withdrew it’s request to lease city parkland.
Leesha Ford, Toby’s House director, told The Electric last fall that “two donors purchased/donated a lot very close to Carter Park, which should make everyone happy.”
