West End Family Life & Community Center

WE SENIORS – S.A.L.T.

The SALT Program provides daily activities for Senior Citizens in the surrounding community. Each day a hot lunch is provided and seniors engage in an array of activities which prohibit social isolation after retirement.

KITCHEN

In the commercial grade kitchen, the staff uses budgeted funds and donated food to prepares nutritious meals for all programs weekly programs held at the WE Center. The ministry’s goal is to provide healthy, nutritious meals with a focus on nutritional value, taste, portion, size, and presentation.

VOLUNTEER STAFF @ WE CENTER We are grateful for the many volunteers that make it happen everyday for seniors, children, and families at the We Center. They give selflessly with a heart of love and service to the West End Family Life and Community Center.

VISION:

Our vision is to expand our existing programs for senior citizens and at-risk youth which would include increased resources and daily activities. Currently, the WE Center facilitates the S.A.L.T. Program (Seasoned Adults Living Triumphantly) which provides daily opportunities for seniors of the West End Community to lead active meaningful lives. We would like to increase our services to seventy-five (75) seniors and provide additional resources to expand the current daily activities including: board games, exercise equipment, chairs, book shelves, Bibles, upgraded computers, two seventeen-passenger vans and fuel cards to pick up disabled seniors who are unable to take advantage of our services as well as stipends for S.A.L.T. Program volunteer staff. For at-risk youth in the West End Community, the WE Center would like to expand programming to incorporate a daily After-School Program that would accommodate 150 elementary school-age children and a Summer Camp Program that would accommodate 200 elementary school-aged who are deeply impacted by disadvantaged social factors: gangs, violence, single-parent households, failing schools, and a deteriorating community infrastructure.

UNDERSTANDING OUR TARGET DEMOGRAPHICS

In order to fulfill our mission, the Board of Directors of the WE Center had to understand the nature of our community. The history of the West End community since the mid-twentieth century has been one of struggle and determination. The community is a historic enclave nestled in the shadows of Atlanta, the ninth largest city in the United States, with an estimated population of 5.5 million people. And in this “city too busy to hate,” a reference to Atlanta’s eventual rise above legal racism, segregation, discrimination, and economic oppression after the Civil Rights Movement, there are tens of thousands of people who live in the midst of despair and hopelessness.

Today, the West End Community is rife with social decay that is evident to any passerby: vacant and abandoned properties and homes, brownfields, food insecurity, high unemployment rates, crime, low-income and fragmented families, high rates of teen pregnancy, increased high school dropout rates among African American males, increased school closures, rampant drug use (crack cocaine, heroine, methamphetamines), and increased diagnosis of HIV/AIDS transmissions. The symptoms of this community are evident on the types of billboards that plague each street. And, situated in the heart of this demographic of poverty is the West End Seventh-day Adventist Church. (Saltelmajer and Williams, “Called: Core Qualities for Ministry, “Community Engagement: Fulfilling the Mission BY Calvin Preston,” p84. Pacific Press, 2015)

IDENTIFYING THE PROBLEMS

The 2010 Census Data indicates that within the five mile radius West End SDA Church, there are approximately 26,912 residents in the West End Community. Of this total population, the following data breaks out the percentages per established age groups: Additionally, the Census data indicated that more than 90% of our target population in the West End Community live in poverty. The mean per-household-income for this community is less that $22,000 per year for a family of four. A majority African American racial composition, many households are headed by a single parent who is female. Many homes have a parent who has only completed high school.

WHERE “WE” DO IT

West End Family Life and Community Center

With five years of committed service and dedication in the blighted southwest corridor of Atlanta, the WE CENTER is a Refuge of Hope in the City. West End SDA Church renovated the interior of the former Salvation Army Boys and Girls Club, a 22,000 square feet facility to implement community-oriented programming. It is a safe, ADA accessible and environmentally conscious facility. Its features include: energy efficiency, Internet access, multi-use full size gymnasium (for basketball, volleyball, and roller skating), a tennis court, an 18-station computer training lab, an activity room containing 6 flat screen walled televisions and gaming stations, a renovated commercial kitchen, a cosmopolitan-style dining hall/café, a family counseling room, multi-purpose conference rooms, and a 100-seat chapel.

This multi-purpose facility is used for: seniors day program, summer camp, after-school programs, health seminars, athletic and recreational activities, computer training, foreign language classes, special occasion events including weddings, graduations, community planning meetings, information sessions including Affordable Care Act meetings, clergy meetings, arts and cultural affairs.

Meeting rooms and spaces are available to rent, for events such as meetings, parties, conferences, sports activities and community activities. Contact US for more information about rental.