About Us

Schoenbaum Family Enrichment Center, Inc (SFEC) provides versatile space to be shared by a community. Our family and children-focused center houses nonprofit resource programs and sits on an easily accessibly campus on Charleston’s West Side.

SFEC is both a nonprofit tenant and the organization that handles administration for the Schoenbaum Center. We act as leasing agent and facilitate meeting room rentals for the Schoenbaum Center, as well as offering an information center, technology solutions, and the James H. Dissen Resource Library for service providers and community members. Through our facility, our tenant resource programs deliver critical services, such as:

• All-day child care
• Early childhood intervention
• Workforce training
• Information and referral services
• Community programming
• Emergency assistance
• Personal assistance
• In-home care
• Free internet access and computer use

Under the coordination of SFEC, the Schoenbaum Center has had an occupancy rate of more than 95 percent since its opening in 2002 and has provided more than 85 jobs and volunteer opportunities in the community. Each year, thousands of community members are provided with services and resources because of the Schoenbaum Center’s resources and space for service providers.

History

The Schoenbaum Center’s beginnings echoed the values we still maintain today because it was a great collaborative effort from individuals and organizations in Charleston.

In the early 1990s, the Community Council of Kanawha Valley, Inc. (CCKV) saw unfulfilled potential in the Charleston community. Resources and their providers were abundant throughout the city, but due to a lack of cooperation between the groups, they were not effectively reaching out as much as was possible. CCKV completed a feasibility study with a nonprofit center in mind in 1994, taking input from service providers and consumers about how to make resources more accessible.

CCKV President Harriet Deutsch brought their nonprofit center idea to Alex Schoenbaum, a pillar of the Charleston community whose generous philanthropy had helped create a similar center in Florida. Alex and his wife, Betty, were enthusiastic about the proposal and agreed to support the center’s development. After Alex passed away, Betty gave $500,000 to the project to secure the property on Charleston’s West Side where the Schoenbaum Family Enrichment Center would come to fruition.

The Community Council Board Committee was formed in 1999 to oversee the nonprofit center project; they hired Loretta Jett-Haddad as executive director and oversaw design, development, construction, tenant recruitment, and operations. The 2.7-acre campus of a family enrichment center came to live in a former tractor showroom. In 2001, construction began after an initial capital campaign, and the center opened to the public in 2002 as the Schoenbaum Family Enrichment Center, named for the man who could see and support a vision for his community, Alex Schoenbaum. Just five years after opening, the mortgage was burned and debt service was retired on West Virginia Day, June 20, 2007—a full 12 years earlier than expected.

Over the years, the Schoenbaum Center Board of Directors have continued to evolve to best serve Charleston. In 2012, the board unveiled a new branding campaign, including our tree logo. Schoenbaum means “beautiful tree,” and our look now ties together our namesake and mission—like a tree—to be a firmly planted fixture of change in our community.