Bon Secours dedicates new West Baltimore community center

Sisters of Bon Secours were among the hundreds of people who braved a steady rain as they gathered under a tent the afternoon of April 26 to dedicate the $6.8 million Bon Secours Community Resource Center in West Baltimore.

The former Hollins-Payson Branch of the Pratt Free Library, vacant and decaying for two decades, was transformed into a spacious, state-of-the-art community resource center with rooftop solar panels, a gym with basketball courts, fitness room, computer lab, financial counseling space, media center, classrooms and conference rooms for the Boyd-Booth and surrounding neighborhoods of West Baltimore. Future plans call for the addition of a rooftop garden.

The idea for the center was conceived in 2015 during a community forum at then-Bon Secours Hospital, when a neighborhood resident expressed concern about the future of the youth. The former library was purchased five years ago for $1 from Baltimore City, setting in motion plans for the center.

A budding artist shows Archbishop William E. Lori her work as he visits the media center at the new Bon Secours Community Resource Center Baltimore April, 26, 2022. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

“It’s been long in coming…to get the money together and to have so many dedicated people and organizations come together for a part of Baltimore that a lot of people don’t think about,” said Sister of Bon Secours Mary Shimo. “We’re giving them healing and hope.”

While some initial programs are being offered, it’s the surrounding community that will be the driving force as to what will be offered in the future.

“This particular facility was conceived by the community, designed by the community, the programs were envisioned by the community and we’re part of that community in service to the community,” said George Kleb, executive director of Bon Secours Community Works, which has worked for the Sisters of Bon Secours in various capacities since 1987. “It’s not us, the people at Bon Secours, telling the people what they need, it’s the people deciding what they need and what they want. This (center) is based on a relationship with the community.”

Sister Mary said she is “grateful” the community “stuck with us.”

“What we’re doing is giving a hand up,” she said. “People here want to improve their lives but they need somebody to come and extend that hand and we’re part of God’s hand.”

Cynthia Cifuentes, regional vice president for brand communications and community engagement for Kaiser Permanente, represented one of several corporate partners supporting the resource center. She noted that one’s wealth is tied to one’s health.

“It starts right here in the community,” she said.

Cifuentes added that the center’s prize jewels will be its work in mental health early intervention, especially with children, as well as its support of career planning and job training.

Prior to the start of the festivities, Archbishop William E. Lori blessed each of the spaces within the center with holy water. As the official ribbon cutting was about to commence, the audience laughed as the archbishop joked that while the sprinkling rite is a Catholic tradition, the additional showers were not part of his official duties.

Sister of Bon Secours Elaine Davia, leader for the religious order in the U.S., garnered additional laughter after she accidentally cut the ribbon on the count of one instead of waiting until three.

“Today we gather as (God’s) people, confident in care for all those in need and believing in a promise of a future full of hope,” the archbishop said. “May it (the center) serve as a beacon of hope. May it be a place where neighbor helps neighbor. May it remind each of us of the dignity and the promise in each person.”

Email Kevin Parks at kparks@CatholicReview.org

VIEW MORE PHOTOS OF THE BON SECOURS EVENT HERE: