Mid Hudson Times, Wednesday, February 3, 2016
3
Center for Hope gets new home
By SHANTAL RILEY
[email protected]
The Center for Hope has found a new
home in a renovated 4,200-square-foot
facility on Broadway at the corner of City
Terrace.
“I’m feeling joyful for this space,” said
County Director for NHS Orange County
Marie Gulari at a ribbon-cutting ceremony held at the new site last Friday.
“Thank you to the county for funding the
project.”
Gulari was joined by county officials,
center staff and more than 100 kids taking
part in the Center for Hope program. “We
know that a dollar invested in our children’s future saves $10 down the road,”
said Orange County Commissioner Social
Services Darcie Miller.
The center provides educational programming and activities for young people, ages 11 to 21, with a goal of keeping
them off the streets. “The Center for Hope
is an after-school program that serves as
a beacon in the community, where kids
can come, feel safe, learn and get homework help,” said Malcolm Musgrove, NHS
vice president of children’s services.
The center, operated by the community-human services non-profit NHS,
Keith McKinley (far left) looks on as visitors celebrate the opening of the new Center for
Hope on Broadway.
also operates a youth-employment program. “We go out and find companies
Marie Gulari, county director for NHS Orange County, holds a certificate of recognition from
Orange County. County Director of Operations Harry Porr is pictured left.
willing to give young people work opportunities without much work experience,”
Musgrove said. “We pay their salaries,
for a period of time, until the company is
willing to hire them.”
Orange County Director of Operations
Harry Porr took the opportunity to talk
frankly with the scores of children and
teens at the event last week. Life success
has mostly to do with “the choices we
make,” he explained. “Stay in school,”
Porr said, no matter what. “Without a
doubt, don’t do drugs…whatever your
dreams are, (drugs) will cut them in half.”
Keith McKinley, 12, talked about his
favorite classes in the program. “I like
cooking. I like making soap,” he said. “I
like going on field trips.”
When asked what he learned from his
time at the center, he paused to think
before answering. “There are opportunities in life,” he said “You should take
them.”
Center Youth-Mentor Supervisor
Lakiesha Hill gave a tour of the new
space. “This is going to be the art and
soap-making room,” she said, standing in
a large room with bright, orange–yellow
walls.
In the rear of the building was a sizable
back yard, which, Hill said, would soon
boast grass, benches and a basketball
court.
The center also offers culinary training,
horticulture, ceramics classes, community-service opportunities and entrepreneurial workshops, including a soap-making project in which the kids make goatmilk soap by hand. The children sold
$1,200 of soap over the Christmas holiday,
said Gulari.
The kids go on field trips, use the center
computer lab and receive tutoring and
homework assistance, Gulari said. “An
important part of mission is to help the
kids succeed and do well in school,” she
said.
The program is free and open to City
of Newburgh residents. Funded by the
Orange County Department of Social
Services, the center moves to its new location from a 3,200-square-foot basement
space at 280 Broadway.
The Center for Hope is open from 2 p.m.
to 6 p.m. Monday to Friday, and from 11
a.m. to 4 p