Partnership between nonprofits, government agencies gets site plan approval

A partnership between local nonprofits and government agencies that looks to offer a central location for the care of at-risk individuals got the OK from Hendersonville City Council to renovate a former church warehouse in south Hendersonville.

The building will be converted into the Hendersonville Connections Center, where multiple agencies, organizations and ministries will provide services to struggling and vulnerable people in Henderson County under one roof. City Council unanimously approved the conditional zoning ordinance needed to renovate and operate the building owned by Grace Blue Ridge Church at its Oct. 6 regular meeting.

"We really believe that this Connections Center is going to enhance the community and that this is a great spot for it, that it's centrally located, that it's accessible and that it will add to that community there in that neighborhood," Executive Director Rachel Ingram said during the meeting.

The Center will be located at 109 Florence St., and although it will be at the same site as Grace Blue Ridge Church, Ingram said the Center plans to buy the warehouse and operate it independently from the church as its own nonprofit. According to the Center's website, this location is ideal for the project because it is near many other organizations used by the people the Center will serve, such as the Buncombe County Health Department and the Blue Ridge Community College.

The goals of the Center, according to Ingram, are to streamline integrative, holistic care, reduce barriers to accessing care or engaging with services, build connections between individuals and helping agencies, build connections between those agencies and minimize geographic limits on helping agencies.

"We envision a center where nobody is turned away because we can connect every person who walks through the doors with the service they are seeking, whether it relates to food insecurity, eviction prevention, mental or physical healthcare, parenting resources, housing case management, peer support, or something else. We want to be that smiling face, welcoming folks in and telling them they are in the right place," Ingram said in an email to the Times-News.

The Center will not only be a central location for classes, groups and services, Ingram said, but also a place for people experiencing homelessness to address their personal care and basic needs, with facilities like showers, laundry, permanent addresses for mail pickup and computer access for job applications.

"The HCC is so much more than just non-profits doing what they already do in another place. We’re coordinating care and adding spaces for classes, groups, counseling, and other resources for people from all walks of life, facing all kinds of hardships," she said.

Organizations currently partnered with the Hendersonville Connections Center include the Blue Ridge Community College, Blue Ridge Health, Crossnore Community for Children, The Free Clinics, the Henderson County Department of Public Health, Department of Social Services and Sheriff's Office, the Hope Coalition, Pisgah Legal Services, Safelight, Thrive and the United Way of Henderson County, according to its website.

"These partners will have the flexibility to determine the intensity and frequency of their direct involvement at HCC, based on the population they primarily serve, their own staffing capabilities, and other relevant factors," Ingram said. "This opens up the opportunity to introduce shared office space arrangements, maximizing the type of services we can incorporate at HCC."

Some larger organizations may keep staff at the Center full time, while others may rotate staff to the Center on a set schedule or be on-call only, she said. The Center will be guided by a partner advisory board, Ingram said, ensuring partner agency voices are represented in the future, growth and work of the nonprofit. The Center also represents a place where agencies can learn from each other, she said.

"Similar to other resource hub-style facilities in North Carolina, the intention is for HCC to provide both formal and informal networking opportunities to strengthen working relationships between the partners. We also plan to explore ways that we can offer group trainings for partner agency staff members, facilitate best practice sharing, and perhaps consolidate other types of contract services nonprofits frequently need, like accounting, human resources, or language interpretation," Ingram said.

The hope is to break ground early 2023, Ingram said, but they won't know an exact timeline until after the next round of architectural plans and the construction bidding process.

The city plans to distribute $2 million of American Rescue Plan Act federal dollars to local nonprofits, and Joseph’s Outreach Ministries requested $1.5 million in funding for the Connections Center. City Council considered grating the ministry $800,000 of the request at Oct. 6's meeting, but pushed back the decision to November due to disagreements about how to distribute the whole $2 million.

"The City of Hendersonville has unwaveringly supported this project throughout its conception and formation, and we are thrilled to now be among the amazing nonprofits being considered as potential recipients of the ARPA funding," Ingram said. "Every dollar makes a difference, and because of a Dogwood Health Trust grant, each municipality dollar we receive will be matched, up to $1.5 million, making these funds in particular that much more impactful."

Centralized partner organizations such as the Hendersonville Connections Center have been popping up across the country, Ingram said, because they are effective at combating isolation in vulnerable populations.

"So many of the struggles we experience in life are exacerbated by isolation and the overwhelm that comes with feeling alone in your battle — it can be hard to even know where to go, or what hours they accept walk-in appointments," she said. "By centralizing resources and strengthening the web of support between helping agencies, we’re reducing the number of people who fall through the cracks and getting ahead of those crises before they pile up."

Christian Smith is the general assignment reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times. Questions or Comments? Contact him at RCSmith@gannett.com or (828) 274-2222.