The YWCA Bradford has purchased the former Second Ward Elementary School on Congress Street, which it plans to renovate and eventually occupy, and has launched a capital campaign to raise money for the project.
The YWCA purchased the building from the Downtown Bradford Revitalization Corp. with support from the Neighborhood Partnership Project whose funding partners include Zippo Manufacturing Co., Northwest Bank and American Refining Group.
“We’re only in the beginning planning stages,” said Vanessa Castano, YWCA executive director, “but we’re excited to one day be part of the Second Ward neighborhood.”
The YWCA’s plans for the former elementary school building, which is approximately 17,000-square-feet, include a new administrative center along with adjacent domestic violence and homeless shelters, Castano said.
The agency, which provides several other much-needed community services, such as its food pantry and mental health and intellectual disabilities program, needed to find a solution to its current infrastructure problems. Its building on West Corydon Street, which is landlocked, was also deteriorating and could not be cost effectively renovated to meet code requirements, Castano said.
Additionally, the second floor of the building, where the homeless shelter is located, is not ADA compliant, which it must be to receive certain funding.
Recognizing all of those various challenges, the YWCA board of directors spent the last two years evaluating the agency’s programs and needs and reviewed a number of sites and potential options, Castano explained. After commissioning and reviewing the results of a feasibility study from Larson and Associates of Warren, the board unanimously agreed that purchasing and renovating the Second Ward School building was the best option to meet the agency’s future needs.
Moving into and renovating that building will enable the YWCA to downsize its administrative space and better meet all of the needs of both the agency and its participants, Castano said.
The next step in the project is to seek community support. The YWCA plans to launch a community capital campaign in January in an effort to raise $3.3 million.
“The YWCA has helped and supported our community for more than 100 years,” Castano said. “We hope the community will now support us so we can continue to provide vital services to our friends and neighbors.”
Until the renovations are complete, which are expected to take a few years, the YWCA will continue to operate from its current location on West Corydon Street.
There are no plans yet for that building once the YWCA moves to Congress Street.
“We are open to all possible solutions for our current space,” Castano said. “While the expense of demolishing the building has been budgeted into our campaign budget, we have no wish to create more blight or unoccupied space in Bradford.”
