Homeless center to rebuild, expand with IMPACT grant
- January 6, 2015
- / Ben Sheffler
- / training-development
It’s been a time of mixed blessings for the Alfred-Washburn Center.
The center, a day-use facility for the homeless, is a ministry of the St. Vincent de Paul Society faced a fire last December and damage from the historic April rainfall.
Rebuilding and improving the services offered at the Washburn Center will be the focus of 2015, thanks in part to a $102,500 IMPACT 100 Pensacola Bay area grant.
So far the Center has replaced the flood-damaged vehicle used to pick up donations and is remodeling and expanding its facility.
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The Alfred-Washburn Center, which opened in 2000, is located on Murphy Lane in Pensacola and offers shower and laundry service to the homeless from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. everyday but Sunday and Tuesday.
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"This would not have been possible without the grant," says Patty Burns, president of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Council of Pensacola-Tallahassee. "We're very blessed."
Burns says a major part of the grant will go toward building a bike barn furnished with tools and supplies, where the homeless will be able to repair their bikes.
"We have a lot of bikes that have been donated, but they break down. So this facility will allow the person to whom we give the bike to repair it with tires, brakes, handlebars, whatever," she says.
The grant will allow the Center to remodel its shower and laundry facility to serve more people.
[caption id="attachment_13931" align="aligncenter" width="850"]
Work is under way to rebuild the Alfred Washburn Center, thanks in large part to a grant from IMPACT 100 Pensacola Bay Area.[/caption]
Burns says about 130 people come to the Center daily for showers and laundry, but it is only able to service a portion of them.
"With the limited hours we have, there's about 45 people that can get a shower and there's about 25 people that can do laundry," she says.
The building lost in the fire will be replaced and updated with security and computer systems and software. Work should wrap up by the end of January.
Aside from shower and laundry services, the Center also offers a set of clothes once a week, a program to get a Florida ID and bag lunches when a hot meal isn't provided by several local organizations that do provide on a regular basis, Burns says.
Since April, the Center has been working to get the homeless back into the job market.
"We have transitioned about a half dozen people into part-time employment, and it seems to be working," Burns says. "They are very grateful to have the opportunity and to feel like they're coming back into mainstream."
Burns says the Center served about 35 to 50 people per day when it first opened in 2000; now it sees more than 100 per day, but the numbers have leveled off.
"[Homelessness] is a problem that we would like to solve, but it's not one that's easy to solve," she says.
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Council of Pensacola-Tallahassee also runs three thrift stores, two food pantries and an outlet store in Pensacola.
Work is under way to rebuild the Alfred Washburn Center, thanks in large part to a grant from IMPACT 100 Pensacola Bay Area.[/caption]
Burns says about 130 people come to the Center daily for showers and laundry, but it is only able to service a portion of them.
"With the limited hours we have, there's about 45 people that can get a shower and there's about 25 people that can do laundry," she says.
The building lost in the fire will be replaced and updated with security and computer systems and software. Work should wrap up by the end of January.
Aside from shower and laundry services, the Center also offers a set of clothes once a week, a program to get a Florida ID and bag lunches when a hot meal isn't provided by several local organizations that do provide on a regular basis, Burns says.
Since April, the Center has been working to get the homeless back into the job market.
"We have transitioned about a half dozen people into part-time employment, and it seems to be working," Burns says. "They are very grateful to have the opportunity and to feel like they're coming back into mainstream."
Burns says the Center served about 35 to 50 people per day when it first opened in 2000; now it sees more than 100 per day, but the numbers have leveled off.
"[Homelessness] is a problem that we would like to solve, but it's not one that's easy to solve," she says.
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Council of Pensacola-Tallahassee also runs three thrift stores, two food pantries and an outlet store in Pensacola.
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