ATLANTA — A new community center is making a big difference in its community already, but is facing a massive challenge regarding funding - and its deadline is quickly approaching.
The Reverend Timothy McDonald Outreach Center, located within the Iconium Baptist Church on Moreland Avenue, is fighting to stay open and seeking community help.
It opened in February and brought 12 non-profits together to streamline resources families need, including violence prevention and conflict resolution programs. It’s already serving about 200 families and has plans to grow.
According to Black Push founder, who headed the project, Shaun Smith, the center needs to raise $10,000 by the end of the month to help keep the doors open and also needs volunteers.
11Alive's Cheryl Preheim talked to Smith, Sharmaine Brown, who lost her son to gun violence and one of the youths utilizing the center, 13-year-old Urijah Miles, about the urgent need and the impact.
"We are just looking for community support to get behind us," Smith said. "This is another resource to keep our kids off the streets."
Smith's organization began turning toward gun violence as a focus after he traveled to the sites of shootings in places such as Buffalo and Uvalde, Texas, to see the community responses there. He said he realized his organization could make a change from the bottom-up in Atlanta.
"As I began to look at it, I began to realize that most of the issues we're having, when it came to gun violence, were community issues, and they start in the community. We can resolve them in the community," he said.
An online fundraiser was set up to support the center online here or through Black Push on its website here.