BOARDMAN - The Clarence R. Smith Jr. Family Mahoning Valley First Responder Wellness Center opened in central Boardman on Tuesday afternoon to provide physical and mental health services and training sessions for first responders.

 

The facility is open to first responders from Mahoning, Trumbull, and Columbiana counties. 

 

The wellness center partnered with local health professionals to aid the 152 first responder agencies in the area, according to its website. The center focuses on trauma-related issues as well as general well-being.

 

"One minute, they could be in a terrible car accident pulling someone out of a car," said Mahoning County commissioner and Smith Wellness Center trustee Geno DiFabio.

 

"The next minute, they gotta turn it off and go home. This is a place for in between. If there is a tragedy, if they need any kind of mental health services, this is a place to come and relax and unwind," he continued.

 

The wellness center received $464,000 in opioid settlement funds from the Mahoning County Commissioners' office, as well as $253,000 from Boardman Township. 

 

The facility opened on National First Responders Day. U.S. representative Michael Rulli visited the Smith Wellness Center to express his support for first responders.

 

"Very few people have a job where you leave every day and you're not sure if you're gonna come home alive," Rulli said.

 

"This could be the blueprint for how we move forward and help the first responders in this state. We can't have a day like First Responders Day just to be a decoration. We have to actually put some teeth behind it and make it tangible," he continued

 

The property was originally owned by the late Clarence R. Smith Jr., longtime chairman of COMPCO metal products and boardman resident, whose father purchased it in the 1920s.

 

The Smith Wellness Center enters "phase two" of its development with plans to open a physical therapy facility on the property. Donations may include monetary contributions as well as services and goods, according to a flyer provided at the opening.