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WAVENEY ANN MOOREThe center offered an after-school program and food pantry in Childs Park, but left because its host church closed.
ST. PETERSBURG - United Methodist Cooperative Ministries of the Suncoast, which has provided after-school tutoring and other services to the Childs Park community since 1991, has closed its center in this lower income neighborhood and is reopening in Clearwater this week.
The center's move follows the closing of Childs Park United Methodist Church, which had served as the agency's host until a year ago.
"The decision was made by the district board of mission and church extension that they would not reopen a new church there," said Donna Ratzlaff, executive director of United Methodist Cooperative Ministries, whose administrative offices also were in Childs Park.
"We knew it would be very difficult to charter a new church there," Ms. Ratzlaff said. "That community has an abundance of churches, but we hoped it would happen so we could continue in that location. But ultimately that choice was not given."
Retired Bishop J. Lloyd Knox said the once-thriving Childs Park church had declined over the years and had to be closed. Keeping its property was not viable without a congregation, he added.
"There wasn't any way of maintaining that building," he said.
The property at 3940 18th Ave. S is now for sale. Childs Park United Methodist is the second United Methodist church to close in St. Petersburg in the past year. In June, Trinity United Methodist Church, in the Harbordale neighborhood at 2401 Fifth St. S, also closed its doors. At the time of the closing of the Childs Park church, United Methodist District officials promised not to abandon the neighborhood, which, like the church, had fallen on hard times.
"United Methodist Cooperative Ministries will maintain its visibility and ministry in the community. We are still going to have a presence," the Rev. Kevin James, superintendent of the St. Petersburg District, which covers Pinellas and Pasco counties, said then.
Ms. Ratzlaff said her agency was unable to find suitable space at another St. Petersburg United Methodist church. In the end, the decision was made to relocate to Union Street United Methodist Church, 1625 Union St., in Clearwater.
In Childs Park, United Methodist Cooperative Ministries provided a structured after-school program and food pantry. Ms. Ratzlaff said the agency is working with a neighborhood church it hopes will continue its work.
"We're working to keep the programs we had in the Childs Park neighborhood and hope to see them back on deck real soon," she said.
She said Childs Park residents were "devastated" to learn of the agency's move.
"We had been there providing quality service since 1991, and we were like family," she said.
"So like any family, when you have to make a major move, it was painful for everybody. And we worked diligently to help people find resources to sustain them when we left there."
Despite its move to Clearwater, United Methodist Cooperative Ministries will continue its work in St. Petersburg, including running its Children of the World Preschool at Hope Lutheran Church and its literacy services office, which serves Pinellas and West Pasco, at Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church.
The agency also has a transportation ministry in collaboration with 32 other agencies to distribute free bus passes, provides emergency help with rent and utilities, has an evening feeding program at St. Vincent de Paul and offers other services. The agency serves more than 10,000 people a year in Pinellas and west Pasco and uses more than 1,200 volunteers.
It hopes to establish an after-school program in its new neighborhood, on the border of Clearwater and Dunedin, Ms. Ratzlaff said.
"There are four different schools within a mile, so there are a lot of children and socioeconomically, it's a highly mixed area," she said.
"We are not here to duplicate any services, but to meet gaps in services that may exist and develop new services that are needed."