Contact:

Marcie Colpas Pager

(602) 262-6164 (602) 201-7350

Jan. 14, 2000

The South Mountain Family Services Center has moved to new quarters - a spacious, 20,600-square-foot facility located at 4732 S. Central Ave. on the same property as the former facility.

A grand opening ceremony will be at 9 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 20, followed by a community fair from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. with more than 20 informational booths, health screenings and tours of the facility. Phoenix Mayor Skip Rimsza and city councilmembers Doug Lingner and Cody Williams will participate in the ceremonies. Fourth grade students from Sunland Elementary School will lead the Pledge of Allegiance and Head Start children from the center will provide entertainment.

Pastor Henry Barnwell, First New Life Missionary Baptist Church; Father Javier Reyes, St. Mary's Basilica; and Maria Kinsella and Edmund Nelson, Gila River Indian Community will offer a blessing ceremony.

"For more than 30 years, the South Mountain Family Services Center has provided thousands of families with emergency and supportive services," said Gloria Hurtado, director, Phoenix Human Services Department. "Because of this assistance, our citizens have been able to help stabilize their family situations and work toward becoming self-sufficient."

The center contains a classroom, three conference rooms, two multi-purpose rooms and food bank. In addition, it houses a Head Start program and a new public art project - 30 original, framed photographs of area residents by Phoenix artist Linda Enger.

The images illustrate a sense of pride, love, family, partnership, accomplishment, community and success and will be on permanent display throughout the center. The project was funded through Human Services Department Percent for Art Funds.

The center serves more than 7,800 residents, on an annual basis, in times of personal or financial crisis, offering them emergency food boxes, financial assistance for utility and rent payments, transportation and case management. The former facility, refurbished from an old Safeway supermarket, opened in 1967 under the directorship of Travis Williams, father of current city councilmember Cody Williams.

Funding for the center comes from 1988 city bond funds, Community Development Block Grant funds and federal Head Start grants. Gabor Lorant Architect Inc. is the architectural firm. Construction costs totaled $3.5 million.

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