The groundbreaking for the new Kingswood Community Center in Wilmington was met with great support on Thursday.
More than 200 people came together to celebrate the start of two years of construction on the new 6,500 square meter facility.
The Kingswood Community Center has been an integral part of Riverside for 78 years, providing a wide range of services and programs to promote the well-being and development of its residents.
State Senator Darius Brown describes the new center as a sanctuary and oasis for every generation. It will include an early learning academy, a senior center and recreational spaces.
He says this is part of a holistic approach to transforming the northeast side.
“Through our work to transform public housing in partnership with the Wilmington Housing Authority, with Reach Riverside and the Teen Warehouse expansion, we are literally bringing families and generations together and providing them with services to create pathways out of poverty and promote social advancement for the residents of the City of Wilmington,” says Brown.
The old building on Bowers Street will be demolished to make way for the new centre.
Funding for the $56 million facility comes from several state and federal sources—the state provided $10 million in the fiscal year 2022 bond bill and $4 million from its ARPA funds. The federal delegation secured $13 million. And the WRK Group also received a $4.5 million HUD Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant.
Kingswood is one of three organizations that make up the World Council of Churches group. World Council of Churches Executive Director Logan Herring says the new center represents hope and inspiration.
“The love, the programming, the excellence is there, but we just can’t serve as many people as we’d like because we just don’t have the space,” Herring says. “And so the new building, with all of its bells and whistles, will be able to accommodate us from a physical, content perspective.”
Herring says there is still a $10 million funding gap to complete the project, but it’s enough to get started. Herring adds that he expects additional support from the state and federal governments.
