The $100,000 grant Sister Jose Women’s Center received Friday, along with other donations from the community, is enough to pay almost entirely for the renovations of the center’s new building.
“I’m sort of stunned at the moment,” said Jean Fedigan, the executive director of the center, of the grant awarded by FHR Cares Inc. “This is such a community effort.”
The new facility at 1050 S. Park Ave. is roughly 9,000 square feet, dwarfing the 750-square-foot house the center now rents.
That house can sleep 11 women in cots during winter nights and provides a safe haven during the day. Fedigan said the new space will hold as many as 35 cots, as well as provide in-house services through partnering agencies to help women climb out of homelessness.
The center should be complete in about six weeks, Fedigan said, excepting any unknown obstacles.
The journey to find this facility took more than two years and included changing course when West University area neighbors opposed the center’s earlier proposition to move into that neighborhood. In August, Sister Jose closed on the new property for $485,000 with money raised in a capital campaign.
Donations of time and money have covered most of the renovations to the building.
And with the $100,000 grant now in their pocket, the center has an even smaller bill.
“This grant was a godsend for us,” Fedigan said. “This money will enable us to provide a building that will be all ready to go. We are so grateful to them. …
“The cost we will have to pay is between about $150,000 and $250,000, but part of that is this $100,000.”
