Last November, WCBU sat down with Pastor Irene Lewis-Wimbley, the director of the Southside Community Center, and learned about the organization's many efforts to improve the lives of Peorians living in South End.
Since that interview, a lot's changed.
The center opened its Pregnancy Resource Center, is working with OSF's mobile outreach team, has helped seven single moms relocate from public housing into market rate rentals ... and more.
In this interview, WCBU reporter Hannah Alani catches up with Pastor Lewis-Wimbley.
The following has been edited for length and clarity.
Pastor Irene Lewis-Wimbley: I'm so grateful. It feels like we're coming out of hibernation, so to speak. We're letting our wings dry, and certainly letting them flap a little bit. Getting our strength and our feet under us to hit the ground running. We started out three years ago. Really grassroots, going door to door ... letting folks know who we are, what we're here to accomplish. Listening. 'What do you want to have happen? What could change Southside?' And doing that, listening to the neighborhood. And really, that's where we came up with our pillars of what's needed — the parents' support and education, leadership and enrichment. And then just helping folks get out of poverty and breaking those cycles out of their lives. And so it's been three years of huge success, even in the pandemic.
We're getting ready to do our official launch, our official grand opening with our new partners. We are so excited to have OSF, their caravan at our building, (9:30-11:30 a.m)] on the second Thursday of the month.
And then our super exciting piece de resistance: Living Alternatives Pregnancy Resource Center has graciously accepted our offer to move into the South Side, where the most vulnerable folks are, who need services and access. ... (Now,) they don't have to figure out how to get up on the hill. They can come blocks away from where they live on the South End and meet with our practitioner and the nurses. Get ultrasounds. Find out if they are even pregnant. If there's some issues with STDs. Answering questions. The counseling piece for post-abortion services — because it is such an emotional decision for both dads, moms and the family. So, it's really unique opportunity to bring some much needed support and education services to the South Side.
Hannah Alani: I want to definitely get into the pregnancy center. But tell us a bit about the OSF caravan. What's that going to look like?
Pastor Irene Lewis-Wimbley: We're really just inviting folks to come down to get their blood pressure checked, to make sure they're following up on whatever recommendations the doctors have made. If they're struggling to navigate through the system, they have a really great coordinator to help them understand insurance ... if you have to change plans to best get your needs met, there's education on just about anything you can imagine. And just holding ourselves accountable for our own wellness and health. I think that's my favorite part. I love them to come check my blood pressure ... somebody who's asking me, 'Did I take my blood pressure medicine? Have I been exercising? How you doing drinking that water?' Making those little lifestyle changes, that'll make such a huge difference in the long run.
And then navigating the system. Because of course, they're not a full doctor's office. They can make sure you're connected with the people that you need to be seen by, and who can give you the best recommendations.
OSF's medical team will be available at Southside Community Center 9:30-11:30 a.m. on the second Thursdays of each month.
Hannah Alani: Obviously, another big, huge piece of what the community center has been wanting to offer the community for so long is this pregnancy center. Tell our listeners a bit about what that is going to look like, and when services might start?
Pastor Irene Lewis-Wimbley: Man, I literally found the post-it notes that we were dreaming ... and our board that we had put up there three years ago saying, 'Man we really need a PRC down here.' A pregnancy resource center down here. No judgment. Just be loved. Get your questions answered, so you have all the information to make a good decision. And lo and behold, here we are three years later.
Walk-ins every Tuesday. It's going on during our moms support group. So you're welcome to join us for breakfast, there's childcare, and then of course you can be seen by our practitioners for the pregnancy resource center. And then, by appointment only, they will see you on Wednesday. Get on down to South Side. Check us out. Just ask for a tour . Meet your providers and build relationship. And when you know someone who is in need, someone who is surprised or even questioning whether or not, 'Am I pregnant?' Here's the place to get the answers. Here's the place to get the support and the resources you need. The ultrasound machine is set up, they're trained and ready to receive you. Give us a call.
The Southside Community Center's Pregnancy Resource Center is open 10:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Tuesdays and by appointment Wednesdays.
Hannah Alani: Remind me again, the group that you're partnering with to make this possible?
Pastor Irene Lewis-Wimbley: This is a Living Alternatives Pregnancy Resource Center.
Hannah Alani: Is that a group local to the Peoria area?
Pastor Irene Lewis-Wimbley: They're actually out of Tazewell County, but they are regional. I know there's some in Kansas, there's some in St. Louis, there's some in the Quad Cities.
Hannah Alani: Another big piece of what the Southside Community Center offers is financial literacy counseling. ... Helping single moms move out of public housing and into market rate rentals. Tell me how that's going. ... You mentioned that you have been able to hire someone to bring someone on full time to help facilitate this?
Pastor Irene Lewis-Wimbley: Well, we are going for grant funding to do that. We are launching our fundraising campaign so that we can hire indigenous folks. So they see local faces, making those connections to our resource providers. Because it's really important that we see Black, white and brown working together. And so that really is the message, the optics we want to send, to our community. ... 'We love you enough to put aside our territory, our pride, our whatever it is.'
So our seventh mom is getting ready right now, she's looking for a place to live, she is ready to get out of Harrison Homes. We're so excited. I texted her before I came in, 'How did it go?' ... But the biggest struggle, again: finding housing that's big enough. She needs a three bedroom, but will make do as a two. But the next leg of our journey as Southside Community Center, for Peoria Southside, is to put on our community development hat, and start to find properties that we can flip. Hiring, of course, contractors to do the heavy lifting and the skilled labor. But bringing in volunteers to do the rest of the work, so we can stretch those dollars. And then some of our moms like Pam can find a three-bedroom home. Because the housing stock is so depleted.
I'm very excited that there seems to be infrastructure money coming down through the city, from the federal government. This just seems to be a perfect storm for us to be able to bring together collaborators and folks who are talking about housing. What are we going to do to reinvest into South Side? Clearly, you see the effects of what happens when we dis-invest. But what could we do, if we actually work together, with the government, the church, neighbors ... Hands on, and folks helping themselves. It's a beautiful, beautiful time in Peoria. I don't know what folks see, or where their hope level is. But boy, if they need their cup filled, come hang out with me for the day.
Hannah Alani: Last time we talked, I asked you to kind of put out a call message to the community. ... the one thing that people listening to this, no matter where they live in the city, no matter what their background is, the one thing they could do to really help ... And what you said was, 'Come down to the neighborhood and create relationships.' Is that still true? Is that still the message you'd like to blast out?
Pastor Irene Lewis-Wimbley: It so is. Our tagline, what we talk about all the time, is, 'We can transform this community one relationship at a time.' If we just take responsibility for a relationship with one person, to educate them and cheer them on and see when they're struggling. Let them know that they're known, that they're valued, that they're loved. What could a family do? Where could they be in two years? In five years? If we just invest a little bit of our time and make margin for those who are not as privileged as we are? It's a beautiful picture of social justice. And I see lots of folks in the last couple years ... Facebook, social media justice warriors. I challenge you to come on down, and let's put some put some boots to the ground, with our Facebook memes and our posts and articles. Come down here and put some action with those words.
Hannah Alani: Yeah, absolutely. You mentioned the city investments. There have been a couple of of encouraging pieces of infrastructure updates. We have the Western Avenue Greenway project, we have the park restoration ... Pastor Chuck Brown and hisgrocery store. ... What do all of those things mean to people who live in this community?
Pastor Irene Lewis-Wimbley: When you think of how controversial the term 'Black Lives Matter' ... We have no sidewalks, for our children to even walk. You get up off a bus and you have to step off into a puddle of mud. Those kinds of things send a message that we don't matter.
And so, what's happening in our community is starting to send a real message. Western looks beautiful. They've gone for dollars at the IDOT level for Laramie, to fix some of the huge potholes. ... When we see grocery stores and folks working together and getting creative and thinking outside of the box about how we handle food insecurity, housing, mentoring, our kids stopping violence, and really building neighborhood. ... That starts a bubbling of hope. 'Maybe there is some thing in the air that's going to change. Maybe there is hope. And maybe I can do something differently, and see my future differently.' And it's especially important that our kids get that message. Because they truly are the ones who are going to carry us into the future.
Irene Lewis-Wimbley is a member of the Quality Housing sub-committee of the Peoria City-County Joint Commission on Racial Justice and Equity.
The Southside Community Center is located at 1618 S. Laramie St. The faith-based organization is affiliated with Pekin First Nazarene and partners with PEACE Church, Southside Christian Academy and others.
Learn more about the Southside Community Center — including ways to volunteer and donate — online. Follow the Southside Community Center on Facebook for updates on events and programming.
