{"id":77469,"date":"2026-02-13T10:17:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T15:17:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/?p=77469"},"modified":"2026-02-13T10:17:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T15:17:19","slug":"brookdaleopeningpart2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/brookdaleopeningpart2\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019m proud of you. I knew you could do it all along.\u201d People are the heart of Brookdale"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you walk through the doors of the Brookdale Resource Center \u2013 formerly known as the Brookdale Warming Center \u2013 you\u2019re greeted by a smiling, friendly, and welcoming security guard before heading into the main office to be greeted by even more smiling faces. After checking in, your next sight is a floor to ceiling mural on the wall with the word \u201cHello\u201d on it, and then message boards with information about jobs, housing, and other services.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t always like this. Just five years ago, the building sat empty, old desks, chairs, and other furniture scattered <\/span>throughout, many on their sides and in disrepair. The former elementary school had closed in\u00a0May 2020, merging with\u00a0Riley Elementary to create the new John R. Lewis Elementary.<\/span><\/p>\n

Following the loss on Christmas of two men experiencing homelessness, then Mayor-elect Lester Miller gave Macon-Bibb departments and partner service providers a charge to open an emergency shelter to prevent it from happening again. Led by the Emergency Management Agency (EMA), a plan was formed, services put in place, and the facility was converted and opened to people needing shelter\u2026in less than two weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was a person who was one light bill away from being homeless myself [growing up],\u201d says Mayor Lester Miller of his personal connection to making this happen so quickly and understanding of how much this was needed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a crisis center, basically. This was not a hotel,\u201d Steve Bell, who served as the Center\u2019s first Executive Director, says of what they told people coming through the doors. \u201cI\u2019m just trying to make sure you stay alive.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cInitially, when we opened, it was simply to give them a warm place to stay and a meal and then give our caseworkers a chance to have a conversation with them,\u201d says Alison Bender, who began as a volunteer and was later named the Executive Director.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While the story of how quickly the doors opened to people in need, the truly moving story is how the community opened its arms. To create a safe environment for people. To welcome them inside and make them feel at home\u2026and then to give them the tools and confidence to find their own home.<\/span><\/p>\n

The building wasn\u2019t truly set up for living. There were cots in the rooms and donated sheets and linens. There were bathrooms but no showers. There was a kitchen, but nothing was hooked up and no one to serve the meals. So, a call went out to the community: \u201cwe need your help.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And Macon-Bibb \u2013 as it does time and time again \u2013 showed up and showed out.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tens of thousands of items were donated, from clothing items to shampoo to deodorant to book bags to socks and shoes to coats and clothes to toothbrushes to hairbrushes\u2026and so, so much more. People volunteered to serve the three meals a day. Businesses, without being asked, donated tens of thousands of dollars.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was such an overwhelming response, we had to stop accepting donations here at Brookdale and set up a drop off location at the Fire Station down the street,\u201d adds EMA Director Spencer Hawkins.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI knew that this was something I could continue to be part of,\u201d Bender says of her first week volunteering.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never seen the community support something lie they did Brookdale,\u201d says Bell. \u201cMy heart was overwhelmed with the amount of love that came out of this community, and also lighting the spark back in me to do as well as I could for the individuals that were here.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

However, just having supplies and a place for people to put their head wouldn\u2019t be enough for the volunteers, for the staff, for the partners, or for the Mayor. There needed to be a next step for people\u2026they couldn\u2019t just go back to sleeping outside or in blighted homes. They needed a path forward, and when they walked away from Brookdale, they needed to be better prepared for life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, the Warming Center almost immediately began evolving to the Resource Center. Birth certificates, social security cards, housing applications, veteran affairs, addiction support, mental health services, job applications, real world skills\u2026all were provided to residents. Holiday parties, birthdays, celebrations, get togethers, chores, responsibilities, homework assistance, tutors\u2026education and social aspects were all included in living in a home like this.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Whatever they needed to help them move toward permanent housing and find some kind of stability and normalcy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe folks walking in through this door, are coming in at some of the worst moments in their lives,\u201d says Hawkins of what he stressed to the staff. \u201cWe need to ensure they are treated and cared for with respect, dignity, and compassion.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s already traumatic in some way for everyone involved, and we just want people to feel like they belong here while they\u2019re here,\u201d says Bender.<\/span><\/p>\n

She can still recite the names of the children who have stayed at the Center and even talk about their progress in school. When she talks of them, her voice is filled with the same love and pride as she speaks of her own children.<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a real connection between the people working and volunteering at Brookdale and those who used to stay there. It\u2019s not just the children Bender and Bell remember\u2026they still run into some of the people in stores and in public.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud of you; congratulations,\u201d Bender says she wishes she could tell every person that came through Brookdale. \u201cI knew you could do it all along. I\u2019m glad you believed in yourself.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And that warmth indicates something deeper about Brookdale. It\u2019s not just changing the lives of the people staying there\u2026it\u2019s changing the lives of every person involved.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis organization sparked something in other nonprofits,\u201d says Bell of the first few months. \u201cRaising money can be tough\u2026it was not tough here. We had businesses coming to us just wanting to donate money and volunteer hours.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe people we see, the people that come through, have an impact on us, I hope as much as we have on them,\u201d says Bender.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for changing the life of a child,\u201d Mayor Miller says he wants to say to every person that has worked there, that has donated to the residents, or who has spent time volunteering in the Center.<\/span><\/p>\n

Brookdale is still opening its doors to people in need and is at the center of the community\u2019s effort to help people in need. It is still changing to meet the ever-evolving needs of the community. It \u2013 and most importantly \u2013 the residents still need our community to come forward and help.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe still have people living on the streets. We still have people not turning on the heat in their home because they can\u2019t afford it,\u201d says Hawkins. \u201cThe community needs us to step in a way that is still necessary five years after we opened these doors.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Five years later, nearly 5,000 have come through its doors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Five years later, nearly 5,000 people have had a warm and safe place to stay and had the chance to move toward permanent housing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Five years later, Macon-Bibb is in the midst of a transformative experience that is changing the way it views people experiencing homelessness and people who are housing insecure.<\/span><\/p>\n

And it all started by a group of people and organizations who opened the doors to people in need\u2026and didn\u2019t take no for an answer.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you walk through the doors of the Brookdale Resource Center \u2013 formerly known as the Brookdale Warming Center \u2013 you\u2019re greeted by a smiling, friendly, and welcoming security guard before heading into the main office to be greeted by even more smiling faces. After checking in, your next sight is a floor to ceiling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":49352,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2867,2872,3351,2869,1806,8],"tags":[3653,1804],"class_list":["post-77469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comms","category-ema","category-emablog","category-facilities","category-mayor","category-news","tag-homeless","tag-brookdale"],"author_name":"Chris Floore","featured_image_url":"https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Brookdale-Easter-2.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77469"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77476,"href":"https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77469\/revisions\/77476"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}