Catholic Charities new intergenerational center provides varied community services

Neighbors, families and civic dignitaries got their first good look inside the Carolynn E. Fugett Intergenerational Center May 1, as the West Baltimore Catholic Charities center held an open house at the new $35 million facility.

Monica Wilson, who lives nearby, looks forward to having a safe place for her children – five boys, two girls and another girl on the way – to play and learn. Her sons all love basketball, so having a court just a couple blocks from home will help, because she could not always go with them to a court she deemed safe enough. 

For her children to be able to “walk two blocks down the street to be able to go play basketball, have a safe space for them, whether it’s to do their homework, stay out of trouble, is really great for me,” she said.

Wilson, one of more than 260 people who attended the open house, is also considering taking advantage of the center’s Head Start and Early Head Start programs. 

“I’m excited,” she said. “I think it’ll be great for the community, giving the kids something to do.”

Rashawn Martin, program manager of Peace Players Baltimore, grew up in the community served by the new center. Peace Players is a nonprofit that uses basketball to teach youth leadership development, conflict resolution and peace education. 

“I think every kid in Baltimore City does need our programming, so it just allows us to expand to all kids, to more kids, to give them a space to grow and have a safe space for inclusion,” she said.

Starting this summer, Peace Players will use the Fugett Center as one of its locations for a free program for children 5 to 18, teaching leadership activities and communication skills before even getting on the court.

“We teach them the whole kind of full spectrum of how you can apply these fundamental skills that we feel that you need to grow up and become a conventional adult and a leader in society,” Martin said. 

Kevin Creamer, director of the Fugett Center, said Catholic Charities has been intentionally working on bringing generations together and making use of sites to facilitate that for about 10 years. The agency, which is the largest private provider of social services in Maryland, acquired the site from Baltimore City a half decade ago. Construction on the project at 800 Poplar Grove St. took about three and a half years. 

“We’ve used that time to talk with our community partners, sort of get input on what services were desirable,” Creamer said. “This represents a consolidation of some of the programs that we’ve offered in the neighborhood historically,” including Head Start, which had been across the street for close to 30 years. “Our food pantry program has been operating for over a decade, but we’ve also talked to our community members about how we can build out from that foundation into services that touch on a little bit of everything.”

The model – a shared-site intergenerational center – brings in multiple program partners touching on different age groups under one roof to allow interaction. 

“Older adults have an opportunity to sit down for Eating Together program that’s run by rising high school juniors and seniors, so that there’s an opportunity for mentorship again across those generational divides,” he said.

Creamer said the model is universally relevant, but the West Baltimore location works because the demographics there skew both older and younger, with fewer middle-age adults. 

“Thinking about how we can bring those populations together made sense,” he said. “There’s not been an investment in this community in Greater Rosemont of this scale before.”

The family of State Del. Marlon D. Amprey, a Democrat who represents the District 40 area where the center sits, has lived in the district for five generations. Amprey said the Poplar Grove community has needed services such as those offered by the Fugett Center for at least three generations. 

He said he was frustrated when he arrived for the open house to find no place to park, but then he realized that meant people were there because they knew “the space is here for them. It’s going to be transformational because it’s going to be able to provide opportunities for every age group to be able to use this space and have resources and space, especially for our young people,” Amprey said.

As a former educator, he said he knows students need a place to do things after school and during the summer, and that the indoor and outdoor spaces, including the basketball court, will help the neighborhood and the district.

“This is amazing. We were so happy to help at the state level. And we’re just really excited and thankful for what Catholic Charities provides for the district and for the city as a whole,” Amprey said.

Hurley Blackwell, a retired draftsman who lives nearby, said he first picked up pickleball at the suggestion of a friend – albeit reluctantly, because he thought it was “for old people.” Now, as a player who has won tournaments, he will be a pickleball instructor at the new center.

As a member of the community, he said it’s a good chance to give back and share the health benefits of the sport. “If we just got a small percentage of the community walking in and playing, our courts are going to be full,” Blackwell said.

Denise Hollis, an active member of the Waxter Senior Center on Cathedral Street in Mount Vernon, was particularly interested in the open house because the city recently announced that the Waxter Center will close at least temporarily in May due to faulty air conditioning and other maintenance issues. “I think the (Fugett) center is amazing. I look forward to joining so I can see it actively doing what it’s designed to do. But I’m very excited very encouraged,” she said. 

The timing of the open house at Fugett Center couldn’t have been better, and about 50 people who use Waxter Center took a bus to the event to experience the new place for themselves.

Monsignor Richard J. Bozzelli, pastor of St. Bernardine with Historic St. Peter Claver, covers most of the west side since the Seek the City to Come planning process merged several parishes. Prior to that process, Catholic Charities had partnered with St. Edward Parish offering a food program, a food pantry and Head Start, and those partnerships are maintained in the new center.

“I’ve already talked with Kevin about providing volunteers from our church to this facility so that the church still retains a relationship with this neighborhood,” he said. 

“All opportunities to minister are an opportunity to grow. I first look at it as ministry. You know, as the pastor, this is my territory. I’m responsible for what happens in terms of ministry,” Monsignor Bozzelli said. “What’s exciting for me is it gives us a place to be physically present with Catholic Charities. Obviously, it’s a Catholic Charities operation, but I’m always looking for opportunities for our parishioners to serve. And so I would see this now as a locus for us.”

The center will host an official ribbon-cutting ceremony May 21 with Archbishop William E. Lori blessing the new space. Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller are expected to attend.

Kevin J. Parks contributed to this story.

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