The Moreau Community Center
Donna Nichols is the Executive Director of the Moreau Community Center, which is located at 144 Main Street in South Glens Falls, and housed in a building that had previously been a church. The mission of the Moreau Community Center is to meet the intergenerational needs of the community in a compassionate and inclusive environment. The community center has food services available, educational support, and the opportunity for social engagement for both families and individuals. The Moreau Community Center prides itself on being a place that is inclusive, welcoming, and respectful of the inherent dignity of all people.
Founded in 1977, the community center provides numerous valuable programs… To support these programs, they have recently updated the kitchen facility. This upgrade helps to support programs including their “Bulldog Zone Teen Center”, which runs on Tuesdays from 2:15 PM to 6:00 PM. The upgrade to the kitchen facility helps the center feed over 100 kids that come to attend the teen center.
Donna Nichols has been pleased with the attendance each week for the teen center: “This last Tuesday, we had 105 kids come to the teen center. And they love it! We provide arts and crafts, sports, foosball… And we spend time with the kids and work on their communication skills. These kids really need this program,” she said.
Donna has noticed the change in the kids having access to fresh cooked food that they serve since they upgraded the kitchen: “We used to order pizza for the kids and they would mill around and grab a piece here and there, but now that we are working together with the kids and they are cooking for each other, it makes a big difference. They line up at meal time and are excited for what they are going to eat,” she said.
Moreau Community Center uses every available inch of their facility – when The Teen Center was founded in September of 2021, they renovated an under-utilized area in the community center and created “The Bulldog Zone” which has beanbag chairs, games, and the kids’ artwork hanging on the walls. “They come into this space and decompress,” Donna said. “Sometimes this is the quietest area because they will sit here on their phones… They are still interacting with each other, but it is through technology.”
To run the Teen Center it takes a dedicated staff and volunteers: “Between the staff and volunteers, there are usually about eight adults running the program for the kids. This supervision and structure helps the kids… That is often something that they may be lacking at home.”
Because of the popularity of the program, the Moreau Community Center is looking for a way to expand: “We have about 100 kids every Tuesday from about 2:15 to 6:00… There are some kids that would like to stay longer if they could. So, we need to expand the infrastructure and grow the program… The kids love being here. The whole building is full of music, and it is loud and exhausting, and we love it!”
The community center works to provide services for all members of the community, and has recently been able to expand those services due to a grant that they received from Spectrum – specifically, the Spectrum Community Center Assist Program, a philanthropic program that aims to improve conditions in community centers and create job skills programs.
The Moreau Community Center has been able to increase the services that they provide due to a grant that they received through this grant program: “We applied for and received a grant that provides $50,000 a year for five years for us to provide skills for life and work… This grant has enabled me to hire an employment coordinator. The coordinator helps individuals with their resumes, customer service training, and other services that someone may need to enter the workforce,” Donna said. The mission of this program is to provide professional, reliable and impactful life skills and career search training, and connect individuals with potential employers. Moreau Community Center, through this grant from Spectrum, provides access to a free laptop for job searches, life-resource services, assistance with forms and documentation, and access to job board postings.
Amongst the other services that the Moreau Community Center provides is an emergency-use food pantry, which feeds over 90 people a month – people who are in need of the food pantry come in and fill out an application and choice form… The choice form is provided so that the individuals can choose what they need. Then, the program provides 3 or 4 days of food and personal care products to the individual a month!
The Community Center also provides food for school-aged children through the backpack program – every Friday, food comes up from the regional food bank in Latham, and staff and volunteers help load the bags with food, which are distributed to four area elementary schools. The Community Center reaches out to disabled adults who are invited to come from CWI Community Work & Independence Inc. and volunteer. This program provides food for the weekend for 120 kids who have food insecurity at home.
With all the good work that they do at the community center, they also mix in some fun – in the attic of the community center, there is a thrift store called “Boutique”. People donate their gently-used items, and this is an area that the kids love to spend time at during teen center – they can go up to the thrift store and buy a shirt for a dollar. They have all kinds of donated clothing and accessories that the kids especially love.
There is a space next to the thrift store “Boutique” where ECS Psychological Services has a satellite office; there is a staff member on site one afternoon and evening each week, to provide counseling and therapy services. Donna emphasized that there is a need for accessible counseling in the area.
“We use every inch of this building, this is what we have and we make it work for us,” Donna said.
For more information about the Moreau Community Center, please visit moreaucommunitycenter.org