Mission: The thea bowman center is a community of neighbors, volunteers, and friends of mt. Pleasant dedicated to affirming the spirit, engaging the mind, and nurturing the body. This is achieved through community outreach, food support, children's programs and adult learning opportunities.
Programs: Health & wellness see schedule o health & wellness food support program: provides weekly groceries on saturday (11:00 am - 2:00pm) and the last tuesday (6:00pm) of each month to 6,300 mt. Pleasant residents annually. The center has a partnership with the cleveland food bank, the primary food linkage source. We receive limited monetary donations and food items from individuals and churches to support the food service operation. The goal of the program is to provide supplemental food support to residents in the 44104, 44105 and 44120 zip codes enabling them to have sufficient nutritional food to meet their needs for the month. The population served in 2016/2017 was 60+ years 15%, 18-59 years 49% and 0-17 years 36%. Hot buffet lunch: provided every saturday (12 noon - 1:00 pm) by our five partner churches to the elderly, families and children. The program is totally supported by teams of volunteers who prepare and serve a meal to an average of 200 people each week. The goal of this program it to ensure that the residents of mt. Pleasant have a healthy and nutritious meal every saturday. Ohio benefits bank: the center is an official obb community resource site. The program helps mt. Pleasant residents with heat assistance, medicare, medicaid, food stamps, voter registration and free tax preparation. Intergenerational garden: this program is available to seniors, children and families interested in planting, managing and harvesting their own fresh vegetables. The program operates from april through october each year and is in partnership with the ohio state extension program. Senior outreach: this program is open to seniors aged 60 or older. The participants meet weekly to discuss and learn about a variety of subjects including healthy lifestyle skills.
children's programs -see schedule o children's programs after-school and summer programs @the center and after-school program @ nathan hale elementary school: these after-school programs are open to youth ages 5 - 13. The youth are provided tutoring services and/or help with their homework and other structured activities including computer- based activities at the center. Music and martial arts classes are offered at the nathan hale site. In 2016/2017, we served 20 students on average per day in the after-school programs. The summer program is open to youth ages 5-13 residing in the mt. Pleasant area m -th for seven weeks. In addition to tutoring services, the children are provided learning opportunities in the arts through trips to our local museums. The children learn about nature first-hand through participation in the cleveland metorparks youth outdoors program. This program is funded primarily by neighborhood connection and the church of the assumption. The cleveland food bank provides meals for any child in the community whether participating in the summer program or not. In 2016/2017, 40 children participated in the summer program and 60 children received meals on average each week. The programs are supported by volunteers, part-time employees and paid subcontractors. The goal of these programs is to provide a safe and nurturing environment for neighborhood children to grow and learn.
adult education-see schedule o adult education adult education: open to any adult, 18 or older, who is interested in completing a high school education, who wants to improve their reading skills or who needs tutoring support to pass the ged test. The program offers classes 1-3 pm and 5:30- 7:30 pm daily. The program is one-on-one, tutor-based and provides assistance in reading, writing, math, social studies and science. This program is managed by an on-site manager and 15 tutors. The goal of the program is to provide adult literacy classes to students whose goal is to obtain their ged (graduate equivalency diploma) or who what to develop their reading and math skills. In 2016/2017, 200 students were enrolled with an average of 20 students attending class daily. Computer classes: computer classes are supplemental to the adult literacy classes to assist students in developing computer skills for the online ged test. Computer classes are also available to students who want to improve their computer skills as a means to improve their employment opportunities.
The Thea Bowman center has become a safe Heaven for the children within this community. I have lived here for 16 years and seen the worst of what happens in low income neighborhoods. I have five sons, if it was not for the Thea Bowman Center I don't know where my sons would be. The center gave my children something to positive to do other than hang on the corner with the dopeboys and go to jail. The Thea Bowman Center takes by sons to places a mother on county welfare could never do.The center offers more than just a bag of groceries it offer love, joy and life. It is the the Thea Bowman Center and wish I could do more to help it grow.