CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A successful community program on Charleston’s East End is expanding to the West Side.
A ribbon cutting ceremony was held Tuesday at a building near the corner of 4th Ave. and Florida Street for the new community center to be operated by the Charleston Family Resource Center.
Program board member Matt Sutton said the opportunity to expand comes through a parternship with building owner Resurrection Church.
“They approached us several months ago about taking over the after school program and we agreed to do that as well as expanding our parents as teachers program, which we have on the East End, which we are now going to take on the West Side, along with our child nutrition program,” Sutton said.
Resurrection purchased the building in recent months and started remodeling it to be used as a community center, Sutton said.
“They’ve done a lot of work to it. They’ve put down all new floors. They’ve painted all of the walls and we are getting to start doing the gym area as well. It’s going to be a great community center,” Sutton predicted.
It’s amazing how quickly things came together, Sutton said.
“They had the property. Our staff came to the board and said there’s a need on the West Side and we have the ability to fill that need,” he said.
The program will start out modestly with about 15 children beginning during the Christmas break but Sutton anticipates a full program, like the one at the Roosevelt Center on the East End, by next fall.
The board decided to change the name of the entire program with the expansion from the East End Family Resource Center to the Charleston Family Resource Center.