Nationwide Children's Hospital

Behavioral health programming—especially for children and adolescents—is largely underfunded and ignored.

In 2016, we made a $50 million commitment to Nationwide Children’s Hospital (NCH) in Columbus, Ohio. This transformational gift established the Big Lots Behavioral Health Pavilion—the country’s largest, free-standing behavioral health treatment and research facility just for children and adolescents.

This gift also helped spark a national movement to transform children’s mental health through education, advocacy and research, called The On Our Sleeves® movement. The movement’s goal is to eliminate stigmas and break the silence around mental illness in children and young adults by providing every community in America free access to trusted educational resources, so that no child or family struggles alone.

We engage our associates and customers in several other ways to bring vital funds and awareness to Nationwide Children’s. These include the annual Butterfly Run, the Columbus Marathon, in-store donation campaigns, and by awarding a scholarship to a student pursuing a degree and career in behavioral or mental health, social work, or psychology.

The Pavilion and the fundraising are an extension of Big Lots’ commitment to the lifesaving treatment and discovery taking place at Nationwide Children’s. It’s the right thing to do, the right time to do it, and Nationwide Children’s Hospital is the right partner.