by Natasha Khairullah
Staff Writer
By the time Arden was 10 years old, she had lived in 13 different homes around Jacksonville, withstood physical abuse from a close family member for two years and frequently went without food for days at a time. At the age of 12, she, along with her mother and brother, became homeless. After two years at the I.M. Sulzbacher Center for the Homeless, Arden and her family received enough assistance to help them get back on their feet, but they still weren’t quite ready for all that independent living entailed.
It wasn’t until after a two-year “transitional” period at one of the areas oldest human services agencies called Community Connections of Jacksonville (CCJ) that the family was prepared enough to do so. As of today, Arden and her family have a home of their own and have fulfilling careers.
Founded in 1911 as the Young Women’s Christian Association of Jacksonville, CCJ has been helping families like Arden’s get “back on their feet” for nearly a century, according to President and CEO Patricia Hannan.
Hannan has been with the organization for just over 12 years and says CCJ’s main focus is providing transitional housing and support services to help women, children and families become self-sufficient, move away from public assistance facilities like Jacksonville’s I.M. Sulzbacher Center, Hubbard House and Salvation Army and remain stable.
“This is the in between program, if you will,” she said. “We’re not a shelter, we’re a two-year program to try to help families get back on their feet and become independent and into permanent housing as a result.”
There are a total of nine CCJ locations between Duval and Clay counties and two housing facilities – one of the most well-known of those housing facilities is the Davis Center, located Downtown.
It houses formerly homeless women and children and currently contains 150 residents. Hannan said the boys and men stay at a facility on the Westside or 15 other scattered site locations in Clay County.
In addition to housing for homeless families, CCJ also offers a number of other programs including summer camps and adult continuing education classes. Many programs are aimed at promoting adult education and life skills, early childhood literacy and workforce development.
CCJ also oversees various regional “healthy living” curricula that offer educational information for expectant and new mothers.
They also run the largest summer camp for children in the city. The camp is open to all children that utilize CCJ’s childcare centers. This includes children from the Sulzbacher Center, Trinity Rescue Mission, and others. Last year’s summer camps served more than 1,100 school-age children.
Although there are a number of homeless shelters around the city, Hannan said CCJ is the only “transitional” organization that really serves homeless families.
“With the federal government, the problem is seen as what you normally see as homeless on the street. Families are not their priority, however, families are the fastest growing homeless population,” she said.
“So our programs are really critical and we always have waiting lists and there is a great uniqueness to the program.”
Last year, nearly 4,000 families benefited from CC’s services, 400 of which used the homeless housing programs.
Funding for CCJ primarily comes from U.S. Housing Urban Development, by the City of Jacksonville – mainly through the Jacksonville Children’s Commission – and by the United Way. CCJ also holds its own annual fundraisers including the fall “Tribute” and the spring “Challenge Letters.”
Councilwoman Elaine Brown and her husband Richard are this year’s honorary chairs for the 2007 Challenge Letter. Last year’s Challenge Letter – that normally goes out to 10,000 people – yeilded over $80,000. This year’s letters have just been sent out. Eighty-four percent of all funds raised goes to providing direct services, said Hannan.
Judging by CCJ’s facilities’ growth – CCJ has doubled in size over the past six years – the fundraisers are working.
“I can’t tell you how rewarding of a job it is,” said Hannan. “My husband keeps trying to get me to retire and I know I’ll have to at some point, but that will be a while from now, if I can help it. This is a very very rewarding experience.
“We also have a very stable and talented staff. They are the ones that really do the hard work.”
Community Connections of Jacksonville
— Courtesy of Community Connections of Jacksonville
• 1911— the YWCA purchased a fully-furnished hotel, which immediately became home to 12 permanent residents and 9 transients (thus beginning CCJ’s history of providing affordable housing).
• 1915 — sponsored the first summer camp in the state.
• 1916 — assumed full responsibility for Traveler’s Aid and handled many cases of runaway girls and young couples.
• 1919 — opened and operated the first accredited night school in Duval County.
• 1924 — established the first county-wide employment service for women.
• 1928, opened the first employment workshop in the country, and operated it until Federal Funds became available - it was highly recommended by President Roosevelt.
• 1932, the group destined to become the nucleus of the A.L. Lewis Branch was formed, and 300 African-American girls and teachers organized a character-building organization.
• 1973 — housed a woman’s probationers’ residence for first offenders.
• 1975 — administered a neighborhood tutoring program for low-income elementary children who were experiencing difficulty in academic achievement because of environmental conditions.
• 1976 — administered the Southeast Asian Youth Development Program for refugees to develop leadership and increase cultural assimilation following the Southeast Asian conflict.
• 1977 — established a job readiness program for women.
• 1978 — opened the first emergency housing program in Jacksonville for women with young children for assistance and housing (continues to operate as the Florence N. Davis Center).
• 1994 - the Healthy Families program was added, providing family education, enrichment services, and child abuse prevention programs to Jacksonville’s Northside.
• 1995 — Nia Terrace opened, a transitional housing program for 50 formerly homeless families.
• Throughout the 1990’s — after-school programs offering tutoring, academic enrichment activities and organized sports for low-income families were enacted.
• 2004 — the Northeast Florida Transitional Housing Program for families in South Duval and North Clay Counties became operational.
• 2005 — received a $48,000 grant from the Bureau of Historic Preservation, Division of Historical Resources and the Florida Department of State, to install a new roof and and make other repairs to the then-50-year-old Davis Center.
• 2006 — raised over $80,000 through Challenge Letters.