- PNC is proud to support "Business Forward," where community leaders discuss the issues confronting business in Central Illinois.

(relaxed music) - Welcome to "Business Forward."

I'm your host, Matt George.

Joining me tonight, Kari Jones.

Excited to have her.

Kari is the executive director of the East Bluff Community Center.

Welcome, Kari.

- Thank you.

- Well, let's start off with you.

I always like to start off talking about you.

And you've got a very interesting story, how you got here, but some of the things that you did before you got here.

Talk about it.

- Yeah, so I always tell people it's a pretty interesting journey that brought me to the East Bluff Community Center.

I really started to develop my love for community development, community health when I was in the Peace Corps in Rwanda for three years.

Yeah, so that was my first big thing I did out of college.

I wasn't really sure what I was doing, but I just fell in love with that concept of empowering a community, working together with people in a community to see what can be accomplished while I was there.

- I think some of the times when you hear Peace Corps, you really kind of think, "Oh, that's kind of cool," but you have no idea what it is.

Like what is the Peace Corps and what did you do?

- Yeah, So Peace Corps has changed a lot from the original days when people kind of just got dropped off in the middle of nowhere.

Now we go with a specific job, basically.

So I was working with a school while they were transitioning from a French to English school system, getting the teachers ready to be able to teach in English, helping the older students who had been learning in French to now be able to take their tests in English.

So it started as an English teacher kind of position, and then transitioned to more of a community health role while I was there.

- And you were there three years?

- Mm-hmm.

- Wow.

- Yeah.

- Well, good job.

That's pretty cool stuff.

Was it hard trying to transition?

I think you'd have to have a lot of patience to do that.

- Yeah, I mean, for one thing, in Rwanda, the language is Kinyarwanda which is not used anywhere else.

Just the language alone, you spend the first three months as a Peace Corps volunteer learning the language so that when you go into your village, you're ready to be able to at least communicate on some level with people and just learning the culture.

For me, I've always really liked new experiences, so it was something new and exciting, but definitely a lot of adapting.

- Well, that's a new experience all right.

Yeah.

Most people don't get to do that.

So then you leave there, you are part of another nonprofit.

Is that right?

- That's correct.

It was a Lutheran social services organization in Texas, and we were working at the border working with refugee kids.

And also in that role doing a lot of community connections between refugees and immigrants coming into the area and the community that was living there, making sure that there were smooth transitions and that people were supported.

And so, yeah.

- I've known you for a couple of years, and I knew you were tough, but you had some experiences that really got you to have that mission-based feel in you and that I didn't know about.

I wondered.

And so that's a pretty cool story.

That's nice.

So now you're here.

East Bluff Community Center.

The mission is to foster community engagement and neighborhood stabilization by providing a vibrant place to gather.

I like that.

So tell us what the East Bluff Community Center is and does.

- Well, it really started, what attracted me to the community center in the first place is how community-driven it is.

It started completely volunteer oriented.

People in the community saw the old St. Bernard's School that many people are familiar with; when it closed down and was sitting empty, why don't we do something with this?

There's no place to gather in the East Bluff that has kind of that big area.

We've got the gym; we've got spaces where people can get together for meetings.

And so it was kind of a no-brainer to some of the people in the community that we need to take advantage of this.

And it was completely community-driven to be able to have a food pantry there, be able to have activities in there.

And so when I came in, there was already this great foundation of a lot of community vibrancy in there, but we needed to formalize into more of a sustainable organization.

And so that's what we've been working on these last couple of years, is strategic planning for being able to staff it.

That it's not all run just by volunteers.

Being able to have programs that are ongoing, that have measurable outcomes that we can really show that there's- - Impact.

- Change.

And yeah, good things happening in the neighborhood.

- So just for our viewers' knowledge, we're talking about East Bluff in Peoria.

There's a West Bluff.

There's all different parts of Peoria.

But the East Bluff Center, it is a 501 c3.

It's a nonprofit.

And it's on Kansas, 512 Kansas in Peoria.

But it's a very historical neighborhood, but it's a lot of low-income neighborhood.

And so the need is there.

And what you're saying is it was volunteer-based, and there's still volunteers, and we'll go into that in a minute, but volunteer-based.

But one of the things I remember a while ago is it started with basketball.

Is that right?

- That's right.

That was one of the very first programs that these community members started, was something for kids to do on the weekends.

Something to keep them from maybe making other decisions that might not be so productive for them, having mentoring incorporated with that.

So yeah, it did start with that as a Saturday summer basketball program.

And we're really excited because it kind of went away for a little bit, and we brought it back this past summer and had over 80 kids participating.

- I didn't know that.

That's awesome.

Because I remember when I was at Children's Home, we would sponsor basketball teams.

Yeah, and we had kids that played.

So very, very fun stuff.

One of the key words when I think of nonprofit, especially the core of what you do, the mission of helping kids, and I know it well, I think about safety being probably the best word to describe.

And that can mean many things, but what does it mean to you in that part of town, and what it means to all of the kids and the families that come through the East Bluff Center?

- Yeah, I think that you hit the nail on the head, that that is really what it's about.

That we have a safe and vibrant place for people, for kids, for families to be able to do things, get connected to their passions, to have programming for kids, everything from boxing to Girl Scouts, basketball, you name it.

There's a really wide range of things.

And it's a place where people feel like that they can come, and they don't have to worry about what might be going on outside the doors.

There are challenges in the neighborhood, of course.

I always tell people, come and visit.

It's not what you think maybe from what we hear in the news.

It's still a wonderful place.

There are challenges as there are anywhere.

- There's challenges in every neighborhood.

- But the fact is that there is crime, there is violence in the neighborhood, and that the East Bluff Community Center is a place where we know that the kids can come and meet together and do programming safely.

- I've never not felt safe when I was there.

So you do a good job of that.

So there's a lot of organizations that you're tied to too.

There's a lot of collaboration.

I think a lot of times, and I've talked about it before, but a lot of times people will say we collaborate.

And I kind of have always pushed on people on that, and pushed back and say, "What do you look at as collaboration?"

What is the true definition of collaboration?

Because I call 'em out on it.

Because I think sometimes people like to say it and use that word, but really don't do it.

In your case, you collaborate.

- Yeah, I mean, that's the name of the game for us, that we're not trying to reinvent any wheels.

As an organization that is still really majority volunteer and very few staff, it's not even in our capacity to be able to say we're gonna do it all.

We want to find those organizations that are doing a really good job with the things that we know people in our neighborhood want and need, and try to bring them into the neighborhood to make their services more accessible.

So for example, Boys and Girls Club: amazing after-school programming.

They do that right at the community center.

We have PCCEO: they're doing an amazing job with utility bill assistance.

And we know that's something that people in the East Bluff need.

And so now they have an office right in our building where people can come there rather than having to find transportation.

If they don't have a reliable source of transportation, they can just walk right into the community center and get the help.

- I think sometimes when you hear the word community center, they just think it's like a Y, a YMCA.

And it's not.

It's more than that.

What you just said, I didn't know, but that utility assistance, the food pantry.

I know you have boxing.

I know you have basketball.

Like even your, and I'm gonna get into the business part in a second, but I'm always intrigued by true collaboration, because I think that's what drives our communities.

I don't care what community it is.

And you do a good job of it.

And that's a strategy too.

That's part of your strategy, right?

- [Kari] Right.

Yeah.

- So East Bluff, when you're looking at it, I know it's like Prospect and Knoxville.

Is it Forest Hill?

- That's the border that's a little bit contested I guess you would say.

Definitely Glen Oak to the south.

- [Matt] Definitely Glen Oak.

And then for different purposes, there are different official top north borders.

So for some it's McClure.

For some it's Forest Hill.

For the city, it actually goes all the way up to War Memorial: that's officially the East Bluff.

- If you think about, who cares.

I mean, because if somebody needs you, you're gonna help.

It's not like you're gonna say, "You're not part of the East Bluff."

- [Kari] No, we don't do that.

- It's a historic area too, and I've always found that there's a lot of cool houses, a lot of old houses, a lot of history, a lot of great people.

A lot of people, they've lived there 50 years and then some more.

So I think that's nice too.

So how many people, and I say people because I always think of community centers, and this is wrong, but I always think of kids.

But it's more than kids.

- Yeah.

- So how many people flow through the East Bluff Community Center each year?

- I would say, well, when we count all of those different programs, the things that we run ourselves as well as what our partners are doing in the building, we see over 10,000 people coming through.

- You count the partners because they're there at your place.

- Exactly, and this service wouldn't be accessible to the neighborhood if they weren't here at the community center.

- And I think that is, when you talk about measurable outcomes, that's what drives funding.

That's what drives confidence, confidence in funders.

And you have that.

And so I've been there several times.

I like what you're doing.

And so I think there's opportunities for other nonprofits to call and collaborate.

- Absolutely.

- So in 2019, the board, I think it was just the board, put together, and it's a volunteer board, right?

- [Kari] Mm-hmm.

- They put together or launched a new strategy, and they had some pretty bold fundraising goals.

And I think when you look at a strategy, it's usually three to five years.

I think in the last couple of years you'd have to look at a shorter timeframe 'cause there's so much change.

And then you can put a strategy in place, but until they have somebody to drive it.

So that's when you were hired, correct?

So were you just handed the strategy and said here you go?

Or did you get it and then say, "Well, here's some other things that we can do."

How does that work?

- So it was sort of a mesh of those two things.

So I definitely, like the board had worked really hard on that strategy, and they knew the situation more than I did coming in as a newcomer.

So I definitely wanted to honor everything that they had in that strategic plan.

But I built in sort of what the action items were underneath each of those strategy items.

And so that we had something like specific targets that we were going for on those.

- Those KPIs that help you drive what you want.

So it seems like you've had a lot of success lately in terms of ramping things up.

But as you know, and I'm preaching to the choir here, you can't let off the gas.

Now it's time to really go.

Let's talk business now, straight business.

So funding: you get some capital funding from the state for the building, and that obviously helps.

- [Kari] Yep.

- And things need to look pretty.

They don't need to go overboard, but they do need to be nice because you want people to come in and feel, it's part of that safety, feel proud, all those things.

What other funding do you have to worry about?

Like where do you get your dollars?

- So obviously, operations.

We're in over a hundred-year-old building, so there's always something to be taken care of in that building.

And we have a great agreement with the parish currently, where we are using that building that still belongs to the diocese.

- [Matt] Oh, I didn't know that.

- But we cover everything that's associated with the building.

So if the boiler breaks, that's on us.

But every cost is on us.

So that is definitely our main funding that we need to bring in is that operations piece in order to be able to do any of the programs and to host any of the partners.

And so we do have several sources.

We do take rent from our permanent tenants in the building.

Very affordable rent, because it's all about the partnership and collaboration, but still to help offset some of those costs.

And we do do affordable rentals for the neighbors as well.

So people can rent the gym for their family reunion, for their kids' birthday party.

- The kitchen.

- Yes.

- The kitchen's awesome.

- The kitchen is commissary-approved through the health department.

So that is one source of our income is just building utilization.

And then it's very grant- and donor-driven from there.

- Yeah, and I think that's for every nonprofit.

But at the same time you're in a hundred-year-old building, Children's Home had many hundred-year-old buildings, and so I used to call 'em money pits.

But they have, I don't know the word, but that history is important.

- [Kari] Oh yeah.

- So it's like when you look at certain buildings and areas, and the big Children's Home building on Knoxville.

Then you've got your building.

Then you've got Glen Oak now.

Beautiful.

Those buildings are important for the community: period.

All of 'em.

And if you think about it, no matter what's going on in the city or cities or what's going on in communities, they all have that little barrier around each one of 'em that is safe and should be safe.

And I keep going back to it, because I think about some of the after-school programs.

Now, you can use this anywhere, but I've always thought that between three o'clock in the afternoon when school's out to six o'clock, five or six o'clock at night, are some of the most dangerous times for kids.

You can get in a lot of trouble during that time.

So for a place like yours, it's actually a stop that you can go in there, play basketball or do whatever you need to do, homework, tutoring, whatever.

Is that your mentality too, like that timeframe, or am I just making that up?

- So that's definitely one of them.

And then recently we've been really fortunate to get some state funding to also hit some more of the gap times.

- [Matt] What are those?

- So the evenings, a little bit after the after-school programs.

There's nothing for kids to do after that.

- [Matt] Okay.

That's good to know.

- And for many, that's family time, but there's some who don't have that structured family time, and they might just be out trying to find other things to do at that point.

So we have just launched this program.

We're starting it just two evenings a week where kids can drop in and have a place, a safe place with some really interesting programming.

We've got some cool stuff like learning how to design a video game going on, some work with the art guild.

- [Matt] Oh, neat.

- Yeah, so some really cool things to connect the kids.

And then of course recreation time too: hanging out in the gym, playing some basketball.

And then also on the weekends.

So if kids aren't plugged into sports, they often don't have anything to do on the weekend either.

- So you also have a community garden?

- [Kari] We do.

But the thing that when I was there that I think is very, very important is the food pantry.

- [Kari] Oh yeah.

- And when you think about that, the need, there's never enough, is there?

- [Kari] Mm-hmm.

So is that something that you take donations on?

- [Kari] We do.

Yep.

- So if somebody wanted to go get food, they can just call you or are there set times?

- They can call our office when I'm there, which is 9:00 to 5:00 on the weekdays.

We do have a volunteer pantry manager, so she always has a list of what's really needed at this point, what she's been having to buy because it's not coming from the food bank or things like that.

So I always work with her to make sure that we're bringing in stuff that will be used by the folks coming through.

- How do you expand mission for the future?

- [Kari] How do we expand our mission?

- Yeah, like how do you expand programs?

Do you look at that?

Or is that just kind of right now you're just in fundraising mode?

- Well, we do.

We are constantly in conversation with people in the community, and that's what it's all about.

We are always gonna be community-driven, never top down.

- [Matt] I love that.

- If there's funding that's for something that's not what our people are asking for, then we're not going for that funding.

If it's something that we've heard that people, one of the big things is food.

After the grocery store closed in the East Bluff, that's been a sore spot for many of the people in the neighborhood.

So yeah, making our pantry as full as it can possibly be.

People walk away with a week or two worth of groceries when they come to the pantry, and a hot meal while they're there.

So it's always about what we're hearing from people.

We're always in conversation.

We have a community engagement committee that is made up of people who live in the neighborhood, making sure that we're hearing from them; what are they hearing?

They're sort of our middlemen sometimes when we don't have time to go out and survey everyone.

So that's what it's all about.

That's what the mission is.

- Yeah.

You just took my next question.

- Oh, okay.

- No, I'm joking.

So my question was how do you strengthen these relationships in the neighborhood?

- And that's another huge focus that we have right now, because we know that building up the community relationships is a key component to the safety in the neighborhood when neighbors are looking out for each other.

Because they know each other.

They care about each other.

You're not just going home and this is my house.

I don't know the people next to me.

If I see something going on, that's their problem.

It's all about building up that sense of community.

We've been doing engagement events, all sorts of activities.

So some things that are more tailored to kids and families.

We do senior socials.

We do a conversation group for people who are learning English as well.

So we know we have a big Hispanic population in the neighborhood.

- That's huge.

- Yeah, and we're trying to get them feeling more connected, like this is their community center as well.

- That's pretty neat.

So you rely heavily on volunteers?

- [Kari] We do.

- How many volunteers do you have?

- Officially- - Hundreds?

- I would say at least in the neighborhood of 100.

Between food pantry, and that's not necessarily there all the time, but we know that we have people we can call on to help with different events that we do.

Like we just had Run the Bluff last weekend.

We had 40 volunteers come out for that.

And meanwhile there were 15 volunteers inside helping with pantries.

- So you're always looking for volunteers.

- [Kari] We are, yeah.

- Sounds good.

Now, back to the business piece.

You still have an audit.

You still have HR issues.

You still have payroll.

You still have all of these things.

I think that's what most people don't understand about nonprofits is you're always tightening that belt.

You're always looking.

And so one thing I noticed about you, and in talking to some of your board members, is that board members are volunteers.

You utilize the strengths of those board members to be able to actually rely on their own talents to kind of fill in for gaps that you don't have on staff.

- [Kari] Absolutely.

- And people in your position, a lot of times they won't do that.

And I've never understood that.

But you do a good job of it.

So when you're talking about community, and you're in a community position, what does community mean to you if you had to describe it?

- Well, it's my passion.

Community is about empowering the people that are around you.

And community can mean many different things.

It can be a physical community like we're talking about with the East Bluff.

It can be a community based on your interests.

But when we talk about community in the sense of the East Bluff, it doesn't necessarily mean you have to live right in those boundaries, but that you feel connected to this neighborhood.

So whether you lived there before or you live across Knoxville, but this is a place you like to come.

We have several people who live right over in 04 who come for many of our programs.

And 61603 because the community center is there doing these activities that they don't necessarily have access to either.

So anybody who feels connected to the East Bluff, either by living there or by whatever other connection they have, it's all about empowerment and giving opportunity and making things accessible so that everybody has the chance to achieve their best life that they can.

And it's all about creating that feeling of community.

That we can all build each other up, that we can be watching out for each other, making sure that we're all doing what we can to provide opportunities for one another.

- Yeah, I always think, one of my questions to you was when people hear the name East Bluff Community Center, what do you think it is?

And we talked about it, but is there a word?

And the word that I've come up with is compassion.

And then the thing I think of when people come to your center, there's a lot of resilience in that there.

There's people who are going after life, going after those dreams.

And I used to say to the kids all the time, "It's our job and our positions and nonprofit work to help, no matter whether it's kids, families, adults, to help them realize their dreams."

And that's what you do.

- Yeah.

- Well, you change lives and save lives, and I appreciate it.

So great job.

We appreciate all that you do.

The East Bluff Community Center.

Kari Jones, thank you for coming on.

I'm Matt George, and this is another episode of "Business Forward."

(relaxed music) (relaxed music continues) (relaxed music continues) (relaxed music continues) (relaxed music continues) - Thank you for tuning in to "Business Forward," brought to you by PNC.