Center Pointe offers a day program for adults with disabilities that provides services like education and vocational activities. AmeriCorps members have been volunteering at Center Pointe to help with cleaning and organizing classrooms to make them more functional. If they received prize money, Center Pointe would use it to fix critical facility issues like a broken furnace, update broken kitchen appliances, and repair the roof to address leaks. This would help Center Pointe continue providing their unique program despite facing financial hurdles in recent years.
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Ameri corps center pointe-2588
1.
2. Center Pointe
Center Pointe offers a Day Program for
adults with disabilities. They provide
services such as:
reading, writing, math, social
studies, painting, ceramics, woodshop, co
3. AmeriCorps members served both staff, participants of
Center Pointe and customers of the Estate Sale.
41. What is your team's plan for an ongoing
relationship with the nonprofit?
Currently, two AmeriCorps members are volunteering at
Center Pointe a couple times a week as they pursue careers
in the healthcare field through the YouthBuild program.
43. We have served the Spokane Community for 57 years and are working diligently to make sure Center Pointe is around for many more years to
come. Given the rough economic situation over the past several years we have slowly lost financial support from our community. In addition
our clientele has also been impacted with increased financial burdens. At Center Pointe we rely solely on the generosity of our community, a
small amount of client revenue, and the Estate Sale to support the operations & services that we provide. We are a United Way agency
receiving some support through that avenue as well. We receive no state or federal funding to support our program. Given the decrease in
financial support over the past several years we have found ourselves in need of assistance with our facility.
A few facility maintenance issues have recently developed and need our immediate attention. One of the furnaces stopped working over the
summer and we do not have access to the funds needed to fix it. This furnace covers a major portion of our building. With the winter months
among us we are using electric heaters to warm approximately 6,000 square feet. This is also contributing to an increased financial burden with
higher energy bills.
We have an elevator that runs from the main floor down to the basement that has been out of order for several years. It is an inexpensive fix but
one that we do not have extra funding to allocate to. Our Estate Sale, which contributes financial support to the day program, is located in the
basement. This is an area that we would like to expand our day program to include job skill training among other areas of education for our
participants.
The roof is in need of few minor repairs. The most significant issue with the roof is a leak that occurs over our entry way during extreme rainy
weather and after snow fall accumulation. We have an additional leak that occurs within an emergency exit doorway and has created a
significant mold issue that needs to be resolved.
The ceramics program is also in need of attention, the kilns need to be surrounded with firewalls to ensure proper safety for our clients and staff.
The ceramics program is an area that we would like to expand to the public. Opening up the room to evening classes would bring in an
additional source of revenue to support the day program. We unfortunately are not able to develop the evening program until we are set up
properly.
Center Pointe provides a lunch program to our clientele. It is becoming significantly more challenging given the equipment breakdown within
our kitchen. Our appliances need to be updated. We have two stoves that do not work and one that is extremely slow to heat water and cooks
okay when temperatures are set above 500 degrees. Our main refrigerator just became temperamental and will only work when the cord is
located in a specific area and even then does not perform with accuracy.
The final area that we would love to invest in but would require additional funding is a roof top garden. Gardening is very therapeutic and will
offer additional skills and educational opportunities for our clients. Not only will this provide another education avenue for the program but we
will also use the harvested ingredients within our lunch program.
We provide a very unique program at Center Pointe and have been faced with several extreme hurdles over the past couple of years. The
hurdles coupled with a poor economic environment have placed severe financial burdens on our organization. We would love to use the
generosity of this program to help us overcome some of our obstacles.
-Carol Weems
Board President acting as Interim Executive Director