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Family Center Creates Peaceful Space for Children

June 25, 2025

The treehouse room at the Center for Youth and Families (CYF) has undergone a special effects transformation with help from a local artist and his team. Used for therapy interventions, the peaceful space includes a realistic looking tree and critters encompassing an entire wall overlooking the lobby.

“It really gives you the illusion of being in a treehouse,” explains Joan Neveski, director of child and adolescent ambulatory services at the CYF, who wanted to incorporate a tree in a space for children and adolescents to help calm them as they meditate and reflect on their healing journey. The center is part of Charlotte Hungerford Hospital’s behavioral health care services.

“I wondered if there was an artist somewhere who could build me that tree,” Neveski recalls, mentioning it to colleague and center child trauma response coordinator Kevin Tieman.

In a “isn’t it a small world?” sort of way, Tieman’s wife once worked with a Charlotte Hungerford Hospital nurse named Robin Green, who is now a certified clinical documentation specialist. Green’s son Tyler, a special effects makeup artist and finalist in season 6 on the reality TV show “Face Off,” runs Tyler Green FX Studio in Winsted and does special effects for film and TV.

A meeting — and then a treehouse — was born!

“I told him about this crazy dream that kids would open this door and be taken to another place,” Neveski says. “That we could give them something different and unique, a place where they could gather their thoughts and breathe.”

Green was in from the minute he heard about the vision.

“I was born at Charlotte Hungerford,” he says. “I grew up here. My mother works there. All of that is very important to me and to be able to give back to my community like this is so awesome.”

An entire team — Green; his fiancé, Anthony Videira, who developed the tree’s look and layout; and Sara and Peter Barwikowski of Peter Barwikowski Builders LLC, who did the actual installation — worked on the eight-foot tree in Green’s studio, where the tree was constructed in five main pieces before being erected at the hospital. They worked closely with local safety officials and CYF and HHC staff to ensure the piece is safe and meets all regulations.

The project — which Green described as part Disney, part Rainforest Cafe — was made possible by a donation from John C. and Cheryl Kornegay, CHH corporators.

“This has actually been very emotional for me; I had no idea such a facility even existed and now we are being able to give kids a chance at being happy, at having an immersive experience where they can just heal,” Green says. “I want it to resonate with hope and joy and happiness.”