Relocation and Renovation for Community Center

The Welcome Center improves the lives of at-risk families, children, youth and young adults. Welcome Center clients are 95% non-white. Many are refugees, and many are immigrants. They are struggling to understand the new community they have moved to and that community’s norms, values, traditions, and rules. At the same time, they are fighting to maintain a culture of their own.

The Welcome Center is also meeting the needs of at-risk youth, recognizing that education equals opportunity. The College Access Program is focused on closing the gap and supporting the academic and lifelong success of those students in the program. The move to Main Street increases the Welcome Center’s capacity to meet the needs of these families.

The Welcome Center’s goals are:

• to provide a place to welcome our new neighbors
• to provide guidance and services to assist newcomers in their transition into the community
• to collaborate with agencies and organizations for a better way to address multicultural issues
• to provide community education for native population about the economic and social value in developing a new multicultural community
• to develop and promote programs and services that open economic opportunities to newcomers.

The core of the Center is its advocacy and client services program. However, throughout the years members of the communities served have expressed a need for a gathering space. The Welcome Center, as it exists today in its current location, is housed in a traditional office building and does not lend itself to group gatherings and community meeting space.

In an effort to better meet the needs of the community and expand the reach of the Welcome Center, the agency will take up new residence in a 4000 square foot facility on Austin’s Main Street. With over twice the square footage and an open floor plan, the new mission and vision for the Center will flourish.

Our goals are to move to our new location and to renovate the space to meet the needs of the Welcome Center’s clients. Renovation will begin in mid May or early June with the completion of the bathroom and the costs of the physical move to the new location. Defined office space and the computer lab (walls), the kitchenette and the purchase of meeting and reception room furniture will begin in August 2011. This will be completed by the end of January 2012.

For more information, visit us on our website at www.AustinWelcomeCenter.org. Your support is appreciated.