Community center board to sell building

By Linda m. Linonis

The East Side facility’s building is for sale, and the center plans to relocate.

YOUNGSTOWN — Millicent Counts, executive director of United Methodist Community Center, 334 N. Pearl St., confirmed that the building is for sale but the center is not closing.

“Our building is about 90 years [old]. It’s not suitable for 21st-century programming ... and it’s not handicap accessible,” Counts said. She noted that the center’s board, after what she called “due diligence,” decided to sell the building and relocate.

“We’re exploring several avenues,” Counts said, but added no decision has been made. Because the center serves Youngstown families and schools, relocation in the city is most likely.

Counts said the organization also operates a second site at 760 Main Ave. S.W., Warren. No changes are planned there.

Counts said the center’s annual operating budget is $1,211,000. Funding comes from various sources including the United Methodist Church at large and grants.

The center is a nonprofit organization, affiliated with the General Board of Global Ministries, and located on the city’s East Side. The center provides diversified social services to women, children and youth.

Information on a Web site, www.gbgm-umc.org/umcc/, provided through the General Board of Global Ministries, The United Methodist Church, noted that the United Methodist Community Center has a long heritage of service to Youngstown’s East Side.

Originally called the Pearl Street Mission, the center began in the early part of the 20th century as a neighborhood house for the Italian community.

The Youngstown Methodist Union and community leaders improved the building with new and expanded facilities in the 1950s. It was then the mission was renamed. In 1997, the center was renovated and expanded its services to families in need.

In 1998, the center expanded its services to a school-based setting to coordinate and enhance community services provided to the local city schools.

Counts said programs included mentoring, family readiness, respite care, truancy intervention and case management. She also said the center offers Stoplift, an educational program for people who have been convicted of shoplifting.

“We work in partnership and collaboration with the schools,” Counts said. She noted that involves some 18 schools in Youngstown and more than 5,000 students and their families.

“A child is not a vacuum,” she said, referring to family issues and how the center helps families cope through individualized treatment plans.

Counts said the center plans to launch a new program, PATH, in February: Physical Activities That Heal.

linonis@vindy.com