YWCA's $3.8 million three-pronged expansion and relocation campaign begins

By Marie Blood

“Behold the turtle who only makes progress when she sticks her neck out” is Peoria’s YWCA Expansion Campaign Fund rallying cry. And that’s exactly what they are doing by asking the public to contribute $2 million for a three-pronged expansion/re-location campaign that will cost $3.8 million.

How dare they ask for pledges in this austere year of small hiring and company layoffs? To explain, the Y maintains relocation and re-assimilation of some of their programs is imperative since their building stands in the center of upcoming I- 74 construction that will cause traffic and parking problems they cannot overcome.

The Y’s marketing/public relations director Jeanne Kimble’s answer to “why contribute?” is, “One of the strong points of YWCA is that it has always been there to serve every woman.”

Kimble says the Y’s 27 programs serving Peoria at four locations with a staff of 60 full and part-time people benefits every woman in the area in the diversity of services that they have to offer.

She ticks off some of the more obvious: tumbling, swimming, basketball, and dancing classes; helping needy people off the street and into self-supporting jobs; and children’s pre- and after-school programs, plus all-day summer day camps. There are programs of health promotion, youth development, family life/housing programs, and empowerment and community leadership, according to their literature. “There are very few families in Peoria that have not used the YWCA,” Kimble says.

“And, even if they have not used the programs, they have benefited from the YWCA being in this community,” Kimble adds. To date, private donors have pledged $1.8 million towards the proposed $3.8 million needed for a six-part turtle-shaped pool at Lakeview, and relocation of the YWCA Downtown Family Child Care Center to the City Link transfer center primarily for use by transit dependent, low-income working families. In addition, monies are needed to supplement HOD construction funds for development and relocation of several duplex units (permanent supportive housing) for indigent people emerging from transitional housing.

Why, you ask, does the Y need another pool at Lakeview when they have one downtown, and why another day care center? With the advent of Interstate 74' s downtown renovation, the Y has had to make some major survival decisions, Kimble explains. Perhaps it helps to review some of the things that will still stay in downtown for the time being and why others must leave soon.

At the Y’s main downtown facility on Fayette and Jefferson Streets they offer pool classes, a homeless shelter, overnight cot program, 25 permanent rental apartments, AARP facilities, a gymnasium and large auditorium for basketball and dance groups, plus space for numerous various classes. The overnight cot program is for single women, women with children, and married couples needing shelter who must be inside their downtown facility before 10 p.m. and then out during the day. Their downtown homeless shelter is a six-month program tailored for the needs of single women, women with children and married couples so people can stay on and work with a case manager to get proper financial and other aids in order to obtain jobs and turn their lives around. This program has been operational since 1989, according to Kimble.

The two-year transitional housing program at the YMCA on Hamilton Blvd. is an extension of the homeless shelter during which time a person must be looking for work, working fu1l-time or enrolled in school. According to Kimble, this is the only program of its kind here in the downstate area.

“Our concern right now is our pool program because those ladies come in for half an hour/45-minute programs,” Kimble says, and most of them are there for therapeutic swim classes rehabilitating from hip or joint surgeries.

“Our niche is more a therapeutic program, “ Kimble explains. ‘We have referrals for people who have had knee surgery and hip replacement who have already been through the hospital therapy. We keep our pool at 86 degrees, and we have strong exercise programs for this particular client.”

Fayette Street, which currently fronts the Y’s main door, will become a 4-lane access ramp onto the interstate from downtown. And the proposed interstate access ramps will wipe out most existing close parking lots, according to Kimble.

In talking with current pool clients, Kimble says they told her they would not continue using the pool if it were left downtown. “They also told us they would not transfer to the RecPlex because we keep the 86 degree temperature in the pool, and the RecPlex is more expensive.”

Additionally, the clients voiced concerns about not feeling comfortable coming into the downtown area in the late afternoons or evenings for classes and having to walk several blocks to the Y from a parking lot, Kimble says.

Therefore, the pool transfer to Lakeview where the Y has managed to swap land in the back of their complex with Lakeview Museum land so they can build their pool on the side of the building accessing the existing gym.

“What we are doing is really exciting,” says Kimble.

‘We are building a turtle pool,” she explains. “There will be a central rectangular pool surrounded by a circular lap pool for water walking that is housed inside four square pods at each corner of the pool. “Each pod’s temperature can be set individually, and the center pool can be separated into two pools, if needed,” according to Kimble.

“Classes of ten can be conducted simultaneously in each of the four small pods,” Kimble explains, reiterating that this makes space for six separate pool classes.

“Currently in our main 20 x 60 foot pool downtown, we have managed to conduct only two separate classes simultaneously,” Kimble adds.

In addition to the proposed turtle swimming pool, the Lakeview facility offers various classes and gymnasium facilities pIus a licensed for 153 children (infants through 5 years old) day care center. They also offer a before and after-school program, Biddy Basketball, dance and tumbling programs for 200 children with competitive teams that travel throughout the state, according to Kimble. During the summer they extend the after-school program and keep children all day, calling it day camp, she adds.

The second phase of the proposed capital fund involves monies for providing assistance to running a childcare center on site at the downtown City Link transfer center. “It will be located downtown where the buses now pick up (south of the Civic Center Parking Lot) according to Kimble. She says this day care site appealed to the YWCA because they wanted to maintain a downtown presence with childcare programs.

“So, even though we have closed the one here (downtown) we will still be operating a child care,” Kimble says. They are hoping to get it started this fall, and no later than next spring. “We will be taking 80 children. It will be open to the public but the program is open specifically to indigent and homeless,” Kimble says. This day care program will be handled through the YWCA’ s Childcare Center, according to Kimble, and anyone interested may call the y to get on a waiting list.

Another YWCA site is a day center for homeless operating on SW Adams Street. This last phase is for people who need low-cost affordable housing over a long time span while they get settled into jobs and get some stability to their finances and lives. Here is where the third part of the capital funding fits.

“We have 21 apartments at the transitional program,” Kimble says. “Every time one of our ladies leaves the transitional program, there isn’t a one that hasn’t needed this permanent supportive housing. Our case managers have trouble helping them find housing that they can afford,” Kimble says. And she adds that with a program like the proposed permanent supportive housing included in their proposed capital funding program the case manager will be on site, which will be a definite plus for their clients.

“People coming out of transitional housing are sometimes one paycheck away from being back on the streets,” explains Kimble, and that they need a lot of emotional support and someone to give them advice.

“We have a HUD grant for $2.4 million to build 12 duplex apartments in the south end of Peoria, but the grant does not fully cover the cost of construction,” Kimble says of the proposed low-cost housing they hope to build. Therefore, they are asking for added financial donations from the public to try to fill that void.

To sum up why the needed public donations, Kimble concludes: “I think the thing we are most proud of is we look at what women in this community need and we have a 24-member board of directors that don’t shy away from a challenge. If they see a need in this community, the YWCA is going to move in that direction.”

Anyone wishing further information or where they can send pledges may call the Development Director Janet Bantz Glavin at 674-1167.

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