Schoenbaum Center

Month: September 2015

Enact Community Action

By Brent Pauley, CEO, EnAct Community Action

EnAct Community Action has seen its share of changes over the past seven years, from logo changes, to office moves, to changes in leadership, but two important things have remained constant. First, our stability and growth. We have remained true to our mission to help move low-income individuals and families from poverty to self-sustainability. This is being accomplished by an extremely dedicated team and their ability to obtain new grants and stretch existing funds. Last year EnAct set a record of receiving new grants for workforce development, summer work camps for home improvements, and food and baby pantries.

In addition to our traditional programs and services, such as emergency assistance, workforce development, educational assistance, money management training, EnAct added a new program in late 2014, Non-Emergency Medical Transportation (NEMT). This program has grown to seven vehicles, 13 new employees (many of which came from our low-income workforce development program) and is now the largest NEMT provider in the state of West Virginia.

In the spring of 2015 we added Personal Care as another Senior Services program in addition to our Aged & Disabled Waiver in-home care services. This program will help us continue to grow and offer services in the every growing, aging population of West Virginia.

The second constant that has served EnAct well, is the stable location of our central office at the Schoenbaum Family Center (SFC). Being able to remain in the same location while experiencing such growth has been a blessing. Growth is a big enough challenge without adding the change factor on top. The SFC has been supportive of our mission and growth and we know that we can rely on them whenever we need internal assistance, meeting space, or just an attentive ear.

EnAct will continue to seek out new opportunities to better serve our mission and we want to thank all that have been supportive and will continue to be so. We also challenge and welcome any new collaborative partners to join in and experience the wonderful things that can happen as a result of teamwork. Please visit our website at www.enactwv.org for additional information on our programs and services.

Welcome to the Schoenbaum Center Blog!

By Loretta Jett-Haddad, President and CEO

As President and CEO of the Schoenbaum Center, it is my distinct pleasure to be the first person to contribute to our new blog. I invite you to check back regularly for future postings from our Board of Directors, service providers and other community leaders. We plan to feature postings on a variety of informative topics such as child care, nutrition, wellness, financial sustainability, elder care and emergency assistance resources.

Let me introduce you to the unique and wonderful Schoenbaum Center!

With the vision and generous support of Alex and Betty Schoenbaum, the Schoenbaum Center opened in 2002 and is West Virginia’s premier multi-tenant non-profit complex located in the heart of downtown Charleston. Our mission is to provide or coordinate needed resources for people, families, and businesses through services, community partnerships and opportunities. With eight community service providers under one roof, the Schoenbaum Center helps more than 20,000 people each year with resources to improve their health, safety, education, income and happiness. In addition, we provide more than 70 jobs, plus many volunteer opportunities for members of our community.

As always, our doors are open to everyone in our community and Hope Grows Here through a wide range of programs and services offered by our service providers (a list of these nonprofit organizations is provided under the Links section in this blog as well as on our website) including:

  • Full-day child care for children ages 6 weeks to 5 years
  • Adult education and workforce training for youth & adults
  • Early intervention (birth to three)
  • Child advocacy & consultation on child concerns
  • Mentoring programs
  • Information and referral to services
  • Fraternal financial services and community programming
  • Small business operational consulting
  • Emergency assistance
  • Personal assistance/homemaker services

The Schoenbaum Center serves as a shining example of hope and compassion by enriching families, businesses and the community.  I would like to close by sharing one of my favorite quotes from our Founding Benefactress, Betty Schoenbaum, “The joy of living is the joy of giving”.  Please consider supporting the Schoenbaum Center in your charitable giving. We need your support to continue to serve the wonderful people in West Virginia…our family, our friends and our neighbors.

And lastly, please stop by the Schoenbaum Center for a visit! I promise you will be amazed at who we are and what we do!