CHARLOTTE -- The HopeWay Foundation broke ground this week for a new mental health facility in Charlotte.
The center will offer both day treatment services and residential stays for adults struggling with a mental illness.
Co-founder Bill Blue says there’s a big gap for these services in this area.
"There are over 200,000 people within 100 miles of Charlotte that are suffering from mental illness and breaking down the stigma and raising awareness in the community is important because stigma often gets in the way of treatment,” said Blue.
Blue says more than 60 percent of adults with mental illnesses were never treated in the previous year.
"I think there's a lot of hiding that happens, and you have to protect your story. And I think that's one thing we're really excited about, Hopeway, that this can be a place where people no longer have to hide. They can heal,” said Kathy Izard, who led the campaign development for HopeWay.
Izard says they raised more than $25 million to build the center on a 12-acre site in south Charlotte, which is expected to open in the summer of 2016.