BY KARIS PRESSLER
Just inside the Northend Community Center, to the right of the main entrance, is a bulletin board with a spray-painted title that reads “Community @ Work.” Guests and volunteers brush past the corkboard peppered with job announcements while heading toward meetings, the pool, the indoor PlaySpace, or any of the nonprofit organizations housed inside the building. The space around the board seems to inhale and exhale every time the automatic front doors swish open and front desk volunteers greet guests.
Several steps from the front desk Rod Hutton works in his office. As director of Northend, Hutton sees the comings and goings of almost everyone who passes through the community center.
“If you want to see a happening place, you need to visit the Senior Center,” says Hutton, while pointing to a set of doors just around the corner.
On this morning at the Tippecanoe Senior Center, more than 25 seniors play bid euchre, where cards feverishly flutter toward the center of tables, and the sound of knuckles knocking on wood echoes as players signal their wish to pass. While the groups play, several Meals on Wheels volunteers buzz about, preparing to serve the day’s lunch.
Meanwhile, tucked into a quiet corner, the Senior Center’s Art Expressions group creates. Here, Barbara German paints a landscape of a rowboat resting on calm water, while Kay Pickett puts the finishing touches on a painted replica of the quilt square that hangs from her family’s barn in Michigan.
There’s life and light, color and sound in this space, and throughout many community centers in Greater Lafayette.
This is a community at work.
Faith East, Faith West and Northend community centers
“It’s one continual history,” explains Hutton, when considering the organic spread of Faith’s community centers throughout Greater Lafayette that started when Faith East opened in 2007, followed by Faith West in 2013, and the Northend Community Center in 2018.
Sharing a common connection through Faith Church, each Faith community center works to meet the unique needs of the surrounding neighborhoods. Faith East caters to the recreational and childcare needs of those living on the east side of town, while Faith West offers housing and programs for Purdue’s students, faculty and international community.
Northend, the largest community center in Faith’s network, nurtures partnerships with 13 area organizations that have dedicated space either inside or next to the community center.
Hutton explains that being able to collaborate with established organizations that serve the community well — such as Bauer Family Resources, Hanna Community Center and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Lafayette — is “a big piece of what makes the Northend tick,” because it allows everyone to connect.
At Northend, a dedicated team of volunteers known as The Care Team spends more than 50 hours a week addressing the physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs of community members.
“What they do is sit down and listen, hear the story, understand and build a relationship,” explains Hutton. He continues, “We need to be able to understand where people are coming from. The attitude of empathy and understanding is one of the best things we can do to actually help.” Although the Care Team may not be able to fix needs immediately, team members work to connect individuals to resources, including the organizations inside of Northend that are equipped to help.
Hutton shares that there are no current plans to build additional Faith community centers. “We want to grow what we have right now. … We will always continue to dream, but right now what we’ve been dreaming about is how can we grow and love the community with the facilities that God has blessed us with.”
River City Community Center
River City Community Center, located on Old U.S. 231, is the newest community center to open in Greater Lafayette.
“The question that I’ve gotten from many community members is, ‘Can I use this space?’ And the answer is, ‘Absolutely!’” says Terry Gilbert, director of the community center.
“This center is about reaching out to the community, it’s about engaging in partnerships both with individuals, nonprofits and businesses. We hope that it will be like an intersection between those that are of faith, and the business and commerce world,” he explains.
The center is currently collaborating with Purdue’s School of Nursing in a service grant that aims to assess healthcare needs, and also works with Food Finders to host a bi-monthly River City Market Food Pantry. “We have the pleasure of serving 300 to 400 people out of this food pantry every month,” Gilbert says.
Whenever Gilbert needs a reminder of River City Community Center’s purpose, he recalls this story.
“This was maybe two years ago, it was summer,” he begins.
“I was here with a group of Purdue students; they’re connected through (River City Church’s) program called Chi Alpha. They were here doing some landscaping work for us, pulling up weeds and stuff like that.”
The building, a former grocery store that sat abandoned since 2005, had just been donated to River City Church, and Gilbert brought the students inside the cavernous space to share his vision for the future community center. Suddenly, a woman entered and exclaimed, “Who’s in charge of all this?”
Gilbert recalls introducing himself and gently asking the woman if there was anything he could help her with, as the 20 college students watched.
Then the woman began to cry.
She said, “I just want you to know that I’ve been living in this neighborhood for almost 20 years. And this place has been an absolute eyesore. And every time I look at it I was like, ‘This would be a great place for kids to come play.’… ‘I cannot thank God enough for you guys and what you’re doing in this community because this community really needs something like this.’” She then retrieved $1.26 from her pocket, handed it to Gilbert and said, “This is all I have right now. Can you use this?”
“That’s who we owe it to,” says Gilbert – the citizens of Lafayette’s south side who want to invest and see their corner of the city continue to develop and grow.
Lafayette Family YMCA
Walking into the Lafayette Family YMCA feels a little like walking into a town nestled within a town.
The sprawling 120,000-square-foot space located on South Creasy Lane hosts a steady stream of people en route to exercise classes, the gym, the pool, IU Health and Franciscan healthcare appointments, child care and more. More than 3,700 individuals enter the facility every day.
As Paul Cramer, president and CEO of Lafayette YMCA, gives a guided tour of the facility he opens a set of secure doors and enters Junior Achievement (JA) BizTown. Here, storefronts of familiar local businesses such as PEFCU, Caterpillar, and Kirby Risk line a miniaturized main street. Then, it suddenly becomes clear. This really is a town inside a town.
“You may want to move off the grass there, you could get a citation from the city,” jokes Cramer. He points to a painted patch of grass covering the cement floor and then motions toward the Lafayette City Government office several steps away. “There’s city council, there’s the mayors, there’s the CEOs, they’re here for the whole day,” he says of the 12,000 students who will visit this JA BizTown space throughout the school year to learn in this virtual setting.
Cramer’s energy crescendos as he explains. “So, they’re going to learn financial literacy in the preschool programs (at the YMCA), here they can learn it in the elementary, middle and high school. Then Ivy Tech takes them through the college level.”
This is the heartbeat of the YMCA – connecting people of all ages to positive programming whose long-reaching effects can spill over into successive generations. Cramer explains that the mindset at Greater Lafayette YMCA is “Infants to infinity … we want to be multigenerational in reaching and experiencing.”
After opening in December 2018, this facility has become a shining example for YMCAs across the country. “So, everything in this building was designed about partnerships and collaborations. That’s why this is a new model for the country,” explains Cramer, who says that planning for this facility began over a decade ago when leaders from Ivy Tech approached the organization hoping to form a partnership.
Building the new YMCA on a plot of land just steps from Ivy Tech’s Lafayette campus now gives Ivy Tech students everything from affordable childcare, access to the fitness center, and an invitation to join classmates in the gym when the school hosts athletic events with other Ivy Tech campuses.
In addition to working closely with Ivy Tech, the YMCA also partnered with Franciscan Health and IU Health to create space within the facility for healthcare services. More than 300 patients a day visit the facility to receive physical and occupational rehabilitation, then are encouraged to continue exercising at the YMCA once their rehabilitation goals are met.
Collaboration is key, according to Cramer. “Really I think what helped this move along so well was the wonderful relationship between the county and the city and how they work together in a collaborative way. And that’s what this is. Our theme here is, ‘We complete one another. We don’t compete with one another’… It’s really a community that works together.”
Greater Lafayette YWCA
Greater Lafayette YWCA had a lot to celebrate as 2019 marked the 90th year of the organization’s presence in Lafayette, the 50th year of the YWCA Foundation, 40th year of the Domestic Violence Intervention and Prevention Program (DVIPP), and 25th year of the Women’s Cancer Program.
The organization started at a critical point in history when the first meeting was held at the Community House Association, now Duncan Hall, just months before the stock market crashed in 1929. “When the YWCA was started by this fearless group of women, this was in one of our country’s most dire times… this was a period of time when our country was in a chaos and people weren’t starting new organizations,” explains director Allison Beggs.
Through it all, the YWCA has remained a steadfast force in the local community by working to empower women and eliminate racism.
“While women are the (primary) market we serve, there are male victims of domestic violence and those who identify as transgender or other. We serve all of those populations. It really doesn’t matter where you live, who you love, what you believe; we serve everyone,” says Beggs.
The organization’s impact has extended well beyond Tippecanoe County. In 2018, the YWCA’s Women’s Cancer Program staffed by seven employees provided nearly 4,000 free breast and cervical cancer screening services to women in 41 Indiana counties. That same year, DVIPP assisted in filing nearly 450 domestic violence protective orders and provided more than 9,000 nights of safe shelter in the 30-bed facility located in the historic Rachel and Levi Oppenheimer house on Sixth Street.
Beggs praises her staff for serving with heart. “You can’t come to work every day in our domestic violence program and hear the stories, the horrible stories that these families have gone through. Or be with a family if they’re diagnosed with Stage IV cancer… our staff has to internalize that each and every day as they’re working through our client needs. It is tough work, and it takes a special kind of person to truly live out our mission.”
In addition to providing consistent comfort, shelter and support, the YWCA also provides opportunities for growth through its Culinary Incubator program, where food and catering businesses use the facility’s commercial kitchen to prep and cook. Beggs hopes that the Culinary Incubator along with a new Dress for Success program will evolve to empower domestic violence victims with training and employment opportunities.
“Ultimately… when you help one family be able to overcome an obstacle, you’ve just created another healthy family in our community that will hopefully go out and pay it forward,” Beggs says.
When considering how the YWCA fulfills its mission, Beggs praises the local agencies who work with the YWCA, such as Food Finders, Mental Health America, Willowstone, Bauer Community Center and The United Way, along with support from the local community. “In other places that I’ve been, while they were good communities, you just don’t see this kind of engagement and involvement from so many different areas of our community as you do in Lafayette…. We have a generous community.”
What spurs this generosity? In Beggs’ opinion it’s Hoosier heritage. “It’s hard working people who care about others and follow the Golden Rule, and I think they truly understand that they’ve been blessed, and they want to bless others. It’s just that simple.”
Fun Awaits
Below is a sampling of the events, programs and amenities offered within the community centers. For a complete list of services, as well as partnerships, please visit the following websites.
Faith East Community Center
faithlafayette.org
- Multi-functional spaces for events and meetings
- Gym
- Fitness center
- Oasis Park Indoor Playground
- Preschool
- Friday family fun nights (free)
Faith West Community Center
- Multi-functional spaces for events and meetings
- Gym
- Fitness center
- Café Literato
- Student housing
- Preschool
Northend Community Center
- Multi-functional spaces for events and meetings
- Fitness center
- Pool
- Kid’s playSpace ($1 per child)
- Friday family fun nights (free)
- Co-working studio
River City Community Center
cc.rivercity.info
- Multi-functional spaces for events and meetings
- Kids’ play space ($1 per child)
- Monthly family fun nights (free)
- Food pantry
- River of Hope grief support group
- The Table Cafe + Eatery
Lafayette Family YMCA
lafayettefamilyymca.org
- Gym
- Fitness center
- Pool
- Junior Achievement
- Health care facilities (IU Health Arnett and Franciscan Health)
- Preschool and daycare
Greater Lafayette YWCA
ywcalafayette.org
- Domestic violence intervention and prevention program
- Women’s Cancer Program
- Dance program (Y-Dance)
- Volleyball program
- Culinary incubator
- Adult activities and networking programs
