The East Bluff Community Center is a fixture in one of Peoria's most economically disadvantaged communities. But it's seen a lot of leadership turnover, with three different CEO's in the last two years.
The most recent hire for the position says he's prepared to bring some stability.
Christian McKinney is not a Peoria native, but he's certainly not new to the area. His last job, as the public information officer for the Peoria City/County Health Department, saw him serving some of the same populations and addressing the same issues he faces on the East Bluff.
He has a degree in health administration.
“I’ve been, you know, using that degree in the health space, that’s typically nonprofit,” McKinney said. “So, grant writing, communicating with the public and interfacing with the public, how to, you know, how to speak, what not to say, what to say, things like that.”
McKinney says he brings a "fresh perspective" to the center, as someone coming from a health, rather than strictly business, background. One of the projects underway early in McKinney's tenure has a distinct health focus: the establishment of a health resource center with Heartland Health Services.
“Real simple, off the gate, some vaccinations, real easy to do that. And some minimum, like, checkup things,” McKinney said. “Because it’s not a clinic, they’re kind of transforming the space.”
McKinney says the center and Heartland Health Services have signed a memorandum of understanding, though there's not a specific date yet on when these services will be available.
He sees the project as extremely valuable. The East Bluff has low percentages of participation in the healthcare system.
“This is really just to get everybody’s foot in the door so they can go to the other Heartland facilities that are able to do more care for them,” McKinney said.
McKinney also sees the health center as a natural evolution of the services the center currently provides. It pairs particularly well with what is potentially its most popular ongoing program, the Saturday Food Pantry.
“The last few months we’ve had a consistent 1,500 families that come through,” he said. “And we probably see about 20 to 30 new families every Saturday.”
McKinney hopes, with continued efforts, those trends can start reversing and the numbers will begin going down, instead of up.
At the same time, the East Bluff Community Center is in the earliest stages of a possible move. McKinney says the center could move from its Kansas Street location to the former Kroger grocery store on Wisconsin Avenue, a space also owned by Heartland Health Services.
The details of the move are being workshopped in community forums.
“We don’t want to call it a community center if it’s not serving the community, so gauging them throughout this process is what’s going to be important,” McKinney said. “We have renderings, potential renderings, but they’re all different. So, we showed those to the residents and allowed them to comment on it, anything they would change, things like that.”
The food pantry, affordable community rentals and basketball leagues are among the most popular programs. Some also want concerts to come back to the community center.
Of course, there were also some concerns.
“Really just how much of it is going to be maintained, like what’s the difference, why are we moving, is kind of what their concern was,” McKinney said. “Why are we considering these things?”
McKinney has only been in the position for around a month. He says a lot of the time so far has been spent introducing himself to the community, familiarizing himself with community organizations and establishing relationships.
It's also a time that provides a lot of opportunity for a new leader, as residents explain which aspects of the center are the most important to them.
While McKinney is collecting all this information, he's starting with the fundamentals.
“Being a nonprofit and being this big and this important, you know, maintaining funding and things like that is important and making sure we stick by our mission is really important,” he said. “So that’s kind of what I’m doing right now and that’s what I’m going to be doing for a little bit. Anything after that, I’m not really sure.”
For now, McKinney says he's been well received by the community at town halls and is looking forward to figuring out how best to continue serving the important niche East Bluff Community Center fills.
