Resources:
Sarah Rigg's Feature Article: Ypsi community center offers senior cafe, weekly dinner, free space for nonprofits
Peace HUB Community Resource Center
Transcription:
Lee Van Roth: You're listening to 89.1 WEMU. I'm Lee Van Roth, and this is On the Ground Ypsi. Located in the former Zion Lutheran Church building on South Harris Road in Ypsi Township, the Peace HUB Community Center is becoming a central gathering place for the West Willow, Gault Village, and Sugarbrook neighborhoods. What began as a food pantry operating a few days a week has quickly grown into a community hub offering meals, senior programming, nonprofit partnerships, and access to vital services for all residents. Joining me today to talk about the growth of HUB and its impact on the community is Peace Neighborhood Center Executive Director, Bonnie Billups Jr. Bonnie, thank you so much for joining me today!
Bonnie Billups Jr.: Good morning! I'm glad I could join you!
Lee Van Roth: So, the HUB has expanded pretty significantly since its opening in early 2025. And when you look back over this past year and change, what has it been like to see the center evolve in this way?
Bonnie Billups Jr.: Yeah, it's exciting to see that vision that was created by Peace, but also by other nonprofits who, early on in the process of developing a hub, had conversations with and talked about what would be beneficial to providing and helping them do their mission, but also, of course, providing services to those three neighborhoods, the Gault Village, Sugarbrook, and West Willow Neighborhood, more specifically those neighborhoods, but to the greater 48197 and 98 zip codes. So, it's been great seeing the growth, and it's great seeing the partnership flourish that we've been developing with the other non-profits.
Lee Van Roth: And speaking of those partnerships, a big aspect to Peace HUB and to this project has been the bringing together of several different organizations and resources all into one cohesive kind of space. How did that idea of creating that kind of centralized space for these wraparound services to kind of come around?
Bonnie Billups Jr.: Yeah. That came out of respect for these organizations and what they do. We have been in Ann Arbor for over 50 years. We are an Ann Arbor organization that serves all of Washtenaw County but primarily residents in Ann Arbor. We've always served people though in 48197 and 98, but they have not been privy to the wraparound services that we provide in our Ann Arbor programs. And so, we wanted to think about organizations who were already on the ground doing great work in Ypsilanti, who we could support and come together and partner and provide wraparound services without us having to be the only agency involved. So, getting involved with places like Community Family Life Center, Educate Youth, Our Community Reads, Fed Up Ministries, Food Gatherers, Habitat for Humanity, Our Community Reads I think I mentioned, with getting connected to those organizations who are already doing a lot of work in a lot a ways allows us to provide these wraparound services without us having to fund all of the programs. The ability to have a facility that these other organizations can use it they need to, plus other non-profits who are not necessarily in the HUB coalition but bringing services right there in a neighborhood on-site, is what's the vision. And that's what we're working at.
Lee Van Roth: And one of the kind of ongoing changes, it seems, has been these renovation projects that have been taking place within the former church. A church is sort of kind of a community space on its own, but when you're bringing in all of these different resources and activities and things like that, obviously, you're going need some updates. Can you tell me a little bit about some of the changes that have been made to the physical building?
Bonnie Billups Jr.: Yeah. We're extremely grateful to what was St. Mark's Lutheran Church and its congregation and then the gift of that building to us by Zion Lutheran church who had taken over the property. The fact that the congregation had a vision to be able to make sure that building was being of service to people was key to them--and key to their offering to us--to give us the building for us to be able to do what we did. We were able to rate a little bit over $2.2 million to do renovations and reconstruction. We took the building all the way down to the studs. The building was built in the late 50's or mid-50's. We had to put everything--new electrical, new plumbing. Plus, remember the building was a church with a small little church kitchen. And it was set up basically for primary use on Sundays. Our architects with us designed a space that has multiple spaces that can be used for different meetings. We have a full commercial kitchen. Bathrooms had to be moved and relocated to where there are actually full-size bathrooms. Before, they were little bitty, almost like apartment-sized bathrooms in the building. So, all of that work in bringing the building up to be modern and to be more energy efficient is what we've done over the course of about 18 months' worth of construction and planning.
Lee Van Roth: And food security has continued to be an issue that you are trying to meet the community where they're at throughout this entire process. Starting with the food pantry that was only open for a couple of hours, a couple days a week, now has transformed into the food pantry. We have community dinners. There is a senior cafe that has become pretty popular as well. Beyond providing those meals and that additional food security to community members, what role do you see these kinds of programs kind of continuing to play in the communities that you're serving?
Bonnie Billups Jr.: Yeah. So, food insecurity was one of the main concerns. And when we first given the building before we even came up with a design for it, we started speaking to people in the community and groups. I had probably spent over a year, speaking with over 40 or 50 different groups and individuals, community leaders, to talk about what was needed. And one of the things that we found out was that there was a need for senior citizens and that this was a food desert. And so, of course, our partnerships with places like Food Gatherers and Fed Up Ministries are key to being able to address some of that. Our food pantry, actually, is a full pantry that has meat, dairy, eggs on occasion, along with produce and non-perishable things and perishable items. It's basically like people can come and go shopping in a small market and grab some things for their family. We offer that twice a week. We also have a community meal, which anybody in the community is able to come and get a meal. That meal is every Tuesday from 5 to 6:30. Once a month, Fed Up Ministries is doing that meal also. Starting in July, we're excited about the fact that, at the same time while our pantry is open on Thursdays from 3-6, Fed Up will have their truck there, and anybody will be able to come and get a meal to take with them. That's what we want the HUB to be: with all of our partners in connecting people to all these other organizations that can assist them to find their greatness and make their families stronger.
Lee Van Roth: This is WEMU's On the Ground Ypsi. I'm Lee Van Roth talking with Peace Neighborhood Center Executive Director Bonnie Billups, Jr. about the Peace HUB Community Center right here in Ypsilanti. So, Bonnie, looking ahead, what are your hopes for the future of the HUB? Are there any additional services or programs that you are hoping to implement or maybe expand in the coming years?
Bonnie Billups Jr.: We've been building relationships with other organizations like Washtenaw My Brother's Keeper. There's going to be a restorative justice program that's going to be happening starting very soon. We're starting hopefully with the county Sheriff's Department, a men's group, some things like community nights where families can get together for a movie and dinner. Toward the end of July, we will have in place a new staff person that we call the Community Connector, who when people come to us, they'll be able to say, "Hey, what other services do you need?" And we can connect them to those other services in the community. So, we're excited about all that and just seeing the energy that continues to grow around the services and the things that we're doing. And I'll tell you another thing that we're extremely excited about is seeing the capacity of these other organizations who we've partnered with, seeing their capacity grow. Because that's what we wanted to do.
Lee Van Roth: If there's someone out there listening that hasn't heard of the HUB or doesn't know everything about that's going on within just the building alone, is there anything that you'd want that person to know if they're maybe looking for services? Maybe they know someone that's looking for services or maybe someone that is just looking for a real good dinner.
Bonnie Billups Jr.: Feel free to call us at 734-714-8800 or reach out to us by email at HUB@peaceneighborhoodcenter.org. Stop by Monday through Thursday and check out and see what's happening.
Lee Van Roth: Bonnie, thank you so much for joining me today and for sharing more about the Peace HUB Community Center, its efforts to connect residents with resources and with each other. I think we could always use more connection and community, and it's great to see organizations like yours doing that!
Bonnie Billups Jr.: Thank you so much for your time! And have a great day!
Lee Van Roth: For more information on today's topic and links to the full article, visit our website at wemu.org. On the Ground Ypsi is brought to you in partnership with Concentrate Media. I'm Lee Van Roth, and this is your community NPR station, 89.1 WEMU, Ypsilanti.
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