Services center plan is coming together

Day care, GED classes, a food pantry and a variety of other services are expected to be available in one spot.

By DEBORAH O'NEIL

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 7, 2000

SAFETY HARBOR -- After weathering delays and setbacks, a vision to provide affordable day care and social services in one location for the city's neediest families is moving closer to reality.

Repairs are being made to a vacant, 34-year-old building where the former Lincoln Learning Center sat on M.L. King Street, and renovations are expected to be completed this fall. And on Monday, plans for a new, 3,150-square-foot building to house a social services center next door to the day care were approved by the city.

The entire project is under the direction of the Neighborhood Family Center, which will relocate from its cramped Main Street headquarters to the new building. The Neighborhood Family Center is a non-profit agency that houses a food pantry and offers services such as GED classes, literacy tutoring and parenting workshops.

The YWCA of Tampa Bay will run the day care and is expecting to open its doors for 40 children in September, said community relations director Judy Wood Ganisin. Supporters say the two programs will complement one another.

"This is really cutting edge, having day care beside a Neighborhood Family Center," Ganisin said. "We're excited because we're targeting the population of greatest need."

The last hurdle will be finding about $40,000 needed to complete renovations to the Lincoln Learning Center, said Paul Schneider, director of the Neighborhood Family Center.

Already, the project has won $387,000 in grants from the county and United Way, which will pay for the new building and most of the renovations.

"We're so close," Schneider said. "We're doing all we can."

The Lincoln Learning Center was founded in 1966 by community activist Daisy Douglas and provided child care in Safety Harbor until 1997 when it closed after a long financial struggle. In 1998, a group of church and civic volunteers calling itself the Community Enrichment Foundation pledged to revive the center. The city gave its blessing. But that group disbanded last year without finishing the project.

In October, the city agreed to let the Neighborhood Family Center to take over the effort. Schneider said he is planning to approach the city this summer to request a $10,000 reimbursement for money that was spent recently to remove asbestos from the city-owned day care building. Work still needs to be done on the building's air conditioning, electrical system and insulation.

But since the building was constructed as a day care, it is well suited for children, Ganisin said. The day care will be available for infants to 2-year-olds, child care that is in the greatest demand, she said. Most of the families that will use it will likely come from Safety Harbor, Ganisin said.

"The gap has been for 2 years and younger," Ganisin said. "There's a most dramatic need for child care in Safety Harbor."

The new Neighborhood Family Center will have a larger food pantry and a new classroom that can be used as a computer lab, Schneider said. Construction is expected to begin this summer, he said.

"We're very excited about it," said City Commissioner Neil Brickfield, a former Neighborhood Family Center Board member. "It's actually coming together now. It's taken a long time."

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