In an effort to bring awareness to the benefits of the future 41st Avenue Community Center, a gathering was held last weekend at Rainbow Park at Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard and 41st Avenue. The community center is scheduled to be constructed adjacent to the park at the northeast corner of these streets.

For many years, the 41st Avenue-Franklin Boulevard area, as well as other parts of south Sacramento, has continued to decline, causing much concern for many of its residents and others in the community.

In response to the need to rehabilitate this struggling area, which hit an extreme low when Sacramento County Sheriff Deputy Vu D. Nguyen was killed in the line of duty by a 16-year-old gang member last December, five community-based organizations have been working together to see that the dream for the new community center is fulfilled.

Louise A. Perez of Community Resources Project, Inc. said that these five organizations felt that the event, which was held last Saturday, May 10, was a necessary step toward having a more successful opening of the center.

“Our main goal was to let the public, particularly the community, know that this community center was coming,” Perez said. “We did a needs assessment of the community approximately three weeks ago and we decided that one of the things that we needed to do was to have some kind of an event in order to start making sure that the community was aware that the center is going to be up, making sure that we have an understanding of the kinds of needs and expectations that the community may have with regards to services that are going to be provided at this particular community center.”

These services include day labor services, a medical and dental clinic, a nutrition clinic, medical nutrition therapy, an HIV education and testing facility, a kitchen incubator program that allows health department-approved food preparation and other food-related assistance, youth employment orientations and referrals and a computer-based literacy program for Mexican nationals.

Attending the event was District 2 Sacramento County Supervisor Jimmie Yee, who told The Union about his longtime support of the project.

“[About two years ago], Supervisor [Don] Nottoli and I came out [to the 41st Avenue area] to see why [negative] things were happening in this area,” Yee said. “We saw that they needed a lot of things. Besides a neighborhood park [Rainbow Park], they don’t have anything.”

Yee said from that point on he became involved in supporting the efforts to have a community center built in the 41st Avenue area.

“Beyond simply providing services to the community, the best thing to do is to build a community center,” Yee said.

The center, which will provide the only source of local health and social services in south Sacramento, is expected, said Perez, to assist about 3,000 to 4,000 families per month.

“[The center] will offer services for both the young and old and families in between,” Perez said. “We’re planning to provide from health services to youth services to education and training. It’s going to be a wide variety of services that are going to become available at this particular site, which is really exciting.”

In the meantime, efforts are underway to acquire the funds, which are necessary to complete this project.

Thus far, the project, which is expected to cost about $2.5 million, is at about the halfway point of meeting its financial goals.

Grants and donations to the project include $240,000 from The California Endowment; $75,000 from the Kaiser Permanente Foundation; about $70,000 in architectural services from Christian Palacino; $1,000 from the Franklin Boulevard Business Association; and $500 from the Sacramento Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

During the event, the Campbell’s Soup Company of Sacramento, which is already donating snacks and drinks to the project, presented a $20,000 check for the construction of the center’s incubator kitchen.

A portion of the funds will be used to demolish an abandoned, vandalized and fire damaged house at 3829 41st Ave. The house, which has sat vacant for about the past decade, was formerly home to the now-defunct, non-profit corporation, Meals a La Car.

Perez said that although the option is being held as a last resort, progress has been made toward acquiring a loan for the balance of the entire project in the event that necessary funding is not received by other means.

Many residents in the 41st Avenue area, including Hank Torres, are looking forward to the new community center.

“I moved to this area in 1952 and the area was already starting to decline by the late 1950s,” Perez said. “This area used to be just orchards and farmland and then they started to construct a lot of houses here and it was built into a nice place. But (in the late 1950s), many bad apples came into the south area, not just this area, and things have never been the same. I am looking forward to the community center helping out this area.”

Kathy Tescher, executive director of the Franklin Boulevard Business Association, said that the arrival of the center will also be a victory for the area’s business community.

“What happens in the community effects what happens in the business community, so this project is a ‘win-win’ for both businesses and residents,” Tescher said.

Elaine Abelaye, executive director of Asian Resources, Inc., said that the community center will provide quality services and unique opportunities to work together as a community, which she said includes two large segments of Latin and southeast Asians, who are predominantly Hmong.

“The community center creates opportunities to work together as a community in a way that we haven’t done so before,” Abelaye said.

Depending upon the programs, Russian, Hmong, Spanish and English-speaking assistants will be available at the center.

Lt. Rosie Enriquez of the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department said that with the assistance of many people who are helping to make the center a reality, she expects the center to be a strong benefit to the community.

“I’ve spent 25 years as a deputy, sergeant and lieutenant in this area and I feel that this [center] is a tremendous opportunity for the area,” Enriquez said. “People have put their hearts and souls into making this happen and I just can’t say enough about this [project].”

For additional information about the 41st Avenue Community Center or to make a donation, contact Yuliya Zingertal, executive assistant to the executive director of Community Resources Project, Inc., at (916) 567-5220, ext. 2237.