The Hope Initiative will technically have two locations, at least for awhile.
The relatively new local organization has been operating out of warehouse space at the Galesburg Rescue Mission, before the Benedict Family Foundation offered them the space in the just-purchased former Churchill Junior High School location they will open in starting in January.
So, will the Hope Initiative move from the former Rescue Mission to Churchill? Not completely. At least, not right away.
“We are going to hold on to our lease over at the warehouse owned by Graham Medical Group,” said Vanessa Rekash, Hope Coordinator, to “Galesburg’s Morning News” on WGIL. “They own the building, and we lease the back 5,000 square feet. We’re going to stay there as long as we can, because there is work that needs to be done over at Churchill — the refresh that we’re going to be doing. We’re going to clean every single room, we’re going to be painting every single space — 77,000 square feet. It’s going to take us a minute to do that.”
The vision is to use classroom space for any of the non-profits who want to set up there, and also making use of the auditorium and other spaces for meetings, special events, education, and other things.
Distributions will continue for the time being at the former Rescue Mission site.
Head Start will lease a separate space at Churchill that is expected to be locked and cut off from the rest of the building. But Hope Initiative director Jeff Morrow says he hopes that parents will visit his side if they need other services that will be housed there.
“We know it’s a crazy idea, but we think this could be a wonderful picture of what it could look like for other communities — how can we get all the non-profits together?” said Morrow, on WGIL’s “Galesburg’s Morning News.” “We want to collaborate. We want to cooperate, and then provide a place where you could literally go in the front door and find anything that you need in one spot. And that’s the goal of this whole thing.”
The Hope Initiative also hopes to use other space within Churchill in many of the ways you think of a community center, given there’s also an auditorium, a commercial kitchen, and other office and meeting space.
Morrow and Rekash describe Churchill as being in great shape aside from the “refresh” they want to do.
