New women’s resource center to be open by summer

Help for single-parent moms to be greatly expanded

By YVETTE C. HAMMETT

Over the past 15 years, The Women’s Resource Center of Tampa has served over 33,000 single moms and their families from a portable classroom behind Bay Life Church in Brandon.

And truth be told, the organization outgrew its space years ago.

Some ingenuity and a lot of fundraising led to last week’s groundbreaking of a new building behind the church, growing the resource center from its scant 1,500 square feet to 10,000 square feet. The resource center raised the money for the building and Bay Life offered up a builder and is paying for all the infrastructure, like water, sewer and electrical.

“Bay Life has been a fabulous partner in making this all come together,” said resource center Director Cheryl Hickman, who founded the agency that helps women get on their feet with jobs, housing, education assistance and more.

Hickman and two part-time staffers run the center along with 32 volunteers. “We’ve grown our volunteer capacity through the years,” Hickman said. “The center has also grown its mission.”

The Women’s Resource Center of Tampa’s new building should be up and running by summer (2019).

When it occupies the new building, probably in summer 2019, Hickman hopes to expand from serving 100 families a month to serving 400 families from the region.

“It is really just expanding our case-management services, adding a computer lab, adding two classroom spaces to do more classes, adding 2,000 square feet of storage so we can do more furniture for families. That will be huge to be able to help with furniture.”

The resource center will have eight computers and 12 case-management stages where families can work, filling out paperwork, uploading resumes and completing other necessary business. “If a mom needs to come in and address some issues, she will have her own little private space to get done whatever needs to be done,” Hickman said. “Apply for a job or print a resume or address food stamps or Medicaid.”

In the classrooms, they hope to start offering GED classes and computer training, which is so crucial for those trying to find a job, she said. The center will also host classes on good nutrition, emotional health and how to put together a budget.

Through the years, the resource center has evolved from a program for women coming out of addiction to a more wholistic family approach, Hickman said. “Our case management has evolved in the sense that we look at the whole picture of what is going on with the family. Initially, it was a specific issue like loss of job. Now we look at budget and finance, how to save money on food, transportation, housing, employment and emotional health.”

When someone comes to the center, volunteers help them create a plan to look at all aspects of life. “We are working for true stability for a family,” Hickman said. “It is a wraparound case-management model.”

The Women’s Resource Center Director Cheryl Hickman and two part-time staffers run the center, along with 32 volunteers.

Nothing has gotten better in the realm of single parenthood since Hickman started the Women’s Resource Center of Tampa in 2003. “It’s just getting more challenging for single-parent moms. That has been consistent over the years. What is happening on the finances side, is how do you make ends meet, find housing and reliable transportation and healthcare.”

It helps having someone who wants to walk with you to help you learn to save money and stretch dollars to make ends meet, she said. There are a lot of jobs available right now, but it is a matter of working one-on-one with the women, getting their resume cleaned up and getting them to the jobs, Hickman said.

The resource center has also helped a lot of women get into classes at Hillsborough Community College, so they can learn skills that will help them to get the jobs to pay the bills.

Fundraising started about three years ago and the center raised the money to buy the new metal building in 2016. “We bought the building, got it here and then lost our builder,” Hickman said. “Bay Life decided they also were going to build a building, so they got a builder we could both use.

“They took our teeny vision and made it a bigger vision,” she said. “They are going to add a 15,000-square-foot building in the same area.”

The infrastructure is supposed to take four months to install, so the new building should be up and running by summer (2019), Hickman said.

To learn more, visit www.wrctampa.org.