BELLOWS FALLS-Founded in 1995, Parks Place Community Resource Center is celebrating its 30th anniversary still focused on its original mission - "to create opportunities by connecting people and resources in the Greater Falls area."
The nonprofit is marking its 30th anniversary with a celebration at its 44 School St. location at 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 7. The event will include pizza, birthday cake, games, and music, with special guests Troy Wunderle and Wade Garrett, a.k.a. DJ Wade the Great.
While local support of the outreach center by area businesses and organizations continues, Parks Place is celebrating its milestone in the midst of a great deal of financial uncertainty on state and federal levels.
The Trump administration has made it a priority to slash federal funding and personnel for human services, and that creates challenges for running Parks Place and fulfilling its mission, said Executive Director Jennifer Tolaro-Heidbrink.
She said that Parks Place has no direct federal funding, but "the organizations we work with" do depend at least to some extent on federal support.
Tolaro-Heidbrink said that the current chaotic federal funding landscape "is ever-changing, and we just have to roll with it at this point. We have no idea how things are going to go."
The many services Parks Place provides include helping people with housing concerns (including evictions), finding jobs, getting training for jobs, mental health counseling for both children and adults, substance abuse counseling, addressing food insecurity, and applying for food assistance.
Parks Place also provides office space for counselors and a place for several support groups to meet.
It offers many other free or affordable products and services that are vital for local families: copying and faxing documents, notary service, applications for state services and fuel assistance, access to a computer lab and online remote meetings, and its Time for a Change program, which offers emergency diapers and wipes.
In addition, Turning Point South, which operates at Parks Place, offers peer recovery coaching and meetings, including 12-step programs based on the Alcoholics Anonymous model. The organization offers a non-religious Recovery Dharma program based on Buddhist philosophy as well.
Serving a community need
In 1992, several community leaders began developing plans for a community-based services center.
These organizers, who all saw the need for more social services in the area, included Gloria Dawson, the outreach director of Southeastern Vermont Community Action (SEVCA); Central Elementary School Principal Cathie Davignon, and community activist Andy Broderick.
Davignon's years working in the elementary school had shown her that many children in the greater Rockingham community were at risk of not having enough food, and she saw that they lacked housing stability and other basic life necessities.
Following a large community forum to discuss the situation, a small core group formed and began to move ahead with plans for a community center.
SEVCA agreed to provide the initial funding for staffing the project and to take care of the building's expenses, and that agency was also instrumental in organizing the purchase of Parks Place's future headquarters.
The large Victorian home at 44 School Street Extension is next door to Central Elementary School. Broderick, then the executive director of the Rockingham Area Community Land Trust, applied for and obtained grants for the Land Trust to purchase and renovate the house on behalf of the nascent organization. The property was owned by the family of Clyde and Eileen Parks, for whom the organization was later named.
In 1994, Barbara Ternes was brought in as the first executive director of Parks Place, which formally opened in 1995. She served until 2015. Four directors have followed her over the past decade, with Tolaro-Heidbrink being the most recent.
"The idea from the start was that Parks Place would become independent and its own nonprofit," Ternes said. "And it did." Parks Place became a Vermont nonprofit corporation in 1995.
Ternes said that using a typical Bellows Falls house for the center was no accident. It was intended to be a homey, comfortable location for local people.
Today, Parks Place is a federally recognized tax-exempt, tax-deductible nonprofit funded by donations and grants. The groups and individuals who regularly use the rooms there also pay fees that help offset expenses.
The building, with numerous rooms of various sizes, has proven ideal for meeting Parks Place's needs. A number of local groups and individuals - in particular, the Rotary Club of Bellows Falls - has consistently volunteered, helping with renovations, painting, and constructing access ramps.
The groups, state agencies, social service organizations, and private therapists who have used Parks Place over the years include the state Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, the state Department for Children and Families and its Reach Up program, the state Department of Labor, Vermont Adult Learning, the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation, Alcoholics Anonymous, Greater Falls Connections, Health Care & Rehabilitation Services, Turning Point South, Springfield Supported Housing Program, Windham & Windsor Housing Trust, SEVCA, Interaction (formerly Youth Services), the Springfield Area Parent Child Center, and Easterseals Vermont.
And that is only a partial list.
First to respond
For 30 years, Parks Place has been the first place for many local families to go to in a crisis. Its connections with so many local organizations and with social and health services put the agency in a good position for directing people in need to the best sources for help.
"My career has always intertwined with Parks Place," said Tolaro-Heidbrink. "It always felt like home being here."
Among many other social service jobs, she was based at Parks Place as a therapeutic case manager and youth shelter manager for Interaction (then Youth Services).
With the aid of its partnering businesses and groups, Parks Place also organizes a holiday gift program, and provides food boxes that include turkeys for the holidays. It also is the site for weekly food distribution programs.
Tolaro-Heidbrink said the numerous grants she applies for often ask what makes Park Place different from other organizations. She said she tells them that "there is not anything out there like us. We help families in a place that is like home."
She said that organizations like Parks Place depend on donors and the uncertain economy is slowing down donations - especially from younger donors.
"The goal is to be here another 30 years," Tolaro-Heidbrink said, noting that the organization is trying to cope, just as it did when the Coronavirus struck.
"Things are just so unclear right now," she said. "The need is still there, if not even greater than ever. This is a scary time for us and for the people we serve."
Donations can be sent to Parks Place Community Resource Center, 44 School Street Ext., Bellows Falls, VT 05101.
This News item by Robert F. Smith was written for The Commons.