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The Women's Center is moving to this building on Cox Avenue near NCSU. The center will have street access and will be less at risk of floods.
RALEIGH -- The Women's Center of Wake County, which has served poor and homeless women from below downtown Raleigh's Caffe Luna restaurant for many years, moved to a new home this week.
The center moved to an office building on Cox Avenue, just off Hillsborough Street, on Wednesday, giving it not only more space but also street access for the first time in 20 years. Flooding, which sometimes plagued the underground location, will no longer be a problem.
The larger space will allow the center to consider adding new services, particularly if it can expand to the second floor in the near future, executive director Jean Williams said. She hopes the organization can establish a mental health and substance abuse facility that clients can safely and easily access one floor up.
"A lot of times when people have a mental health issue, they don't know it," Williams said. "Handing them a bus ticket and hoping they arrive at a doctor's office doesn't work well."
The Women's Center is also looking to have a nurse or physician's assistant come into the office a few days a week, offering preventive health care to people who often get medical attention only in crises.
Help from friends
The move, which has been a two-year effort, is coming about with the help of other local nonprofit organizations.
The Healing Place, a recovery and rehabilitation facility for homeless people who are dependent on alcohol and drugs, sent over two trucks and 15 men to deliver boxes to the center's new home. Not only did the free labor save the Women's Center from having to hire a moving company, it also contributes to the rehabilitation of the movers, Williams said.
The Women's Center has been a helpful partner to The Healing Place, said its vice president of programs, Chris Budnick.
"We have a lot of shared clients since we opened a women's facility in 2006, so they've really helped us broker relationships with business providers and the community," Budnick said.
The Healing Place offers a pickup service for those in need of overnight accommodations, and Budnick said he's relieved to know that the women of the center will have a safer place to wait.
"We're glad to get a lot of women out of Moore Square at night," Budnick said. "There are a lot of predatory men and dealers in the area, so the new location will be a lot safer for them."
The Raleigh Rescue Mission offered to take its truck to a furniture store in Brier Creek and pick up donated furniture that will fill the center's new space. In addition, the mission has made accommodations for the women who will be without food and shelter during the move.
"Most people don't realize what we mean when we say that the community nonprofits and organizations work together - but we really do. We're partners," Williams said.
Cluster of services
The move out of downtown will put the center closer to other organizations that aid women, including InterAct of Wake County, which provides aid to victims of domestic abuse, and The Hope Center at Pullen, which offers food, guidance and support to those in need. A CAT bus stop nearby should help women who use public transportation.
The new location does have one drawback: It's more expensive. The Women's Center, which serves about 2,500 women and children a year, receives funding from the city of Raleigh, an emergency shelter grant and other sources, but Williams hopes the higher rent and utility costs can be offset through additional fundraising.
