Community Center Founder Says ?We Are All Connected?

By: Matthew Kushinka

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Mary Lou Decossaux (1957-2011), Unsung Hero and former head of the Neighborhood Resource Center | Image: ?Richmond Times Dispatch

In a modest building in the Greater Fulton neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia, lives are changing. Thanks to the cultural and educational offerings at the nonprofit, grassroots Neighborhood Resource Center (NRC) and the vision of founder Mary Lou Decossaux, community members have access to opportunities that had been few and far between prior to 2005.

Born in Miami, raised in New Jersey, and educated in France, Decossaux was an improbable advocate for the residents of a working-poor neighborhood in a small Southern city. But the woman whom colleagues describe as ?passionate? and ?unstoppable? was able to effect real change.

Decossaux first gained recognition as ?The Living Wage Lady? after convincing Richmond City and the municipal school board to pay all city and school direct employees a living wage. In 2004, however, the nonprofit NRC organization, led by Decossaux, set its sights on something more tangible.

With contributions from Richmond-area foundations, businesses, and individuals, the NRC purchased an abandoned post office on Williamsburg Road in Greater Fulton. In January 2005, the Center?s doors opened to the community, with almost 1,200 residents taking part in Center programs or events in the first year of operation. Former NRC board member Rose Pollard describes the Center as a ?beaming star?. It beckons people.?

The NRC promotes education, job opportunities, and sustainable development in a community that is often lacking in all three. In addition to offering GED classes, the Center is home to the first and only sliding-scale Montessori preschool in Richmond. The Center?s successful Youth Job Training Program, now in its second year, allows young adults to begin their working lives with supervision and decent pay.

While most families in the Greater Fulton neighborhood have at least one earner in the household, they are often just a car repair or a pink slip away from financial distress. But rather than call the neighborhood ?poor,? Decossaux used the term ?low-wealth,? a descriptor that captures local economic realities while honoring the resilience and independence of area residents.

The NRC initially had only one person on staff; it now has twelve. According to Penelope Ferris, the Center?s programs director, staff members instinctively treat visitors with respect, a practice that comes directly from Decossaux. ?We regularly have people crying in relief because we are reaching them on a soul level,? says Ferris. ?Mary Lou gave us the space, tools, and ability to do this every day.?

The use of a sliding scale makes coming to the Center affordable. A person can leave fifty cents or five dollars. Many classes are free.

In a neighborhood with little available fresh produce, the NRC?s caf? and kitchen offer healthy snacks to residents in an initiative motivated by Decossaux?s own interest in holistic health. When advised not to put in an organic vegetable garden at the Center because the soil was contaminated with lead, Decossaux decided on a raised bed, replying, ?We?ll just put it above ground.?

The impact of the Center on people?s lives can be dramatic. A young woman leading an NRC after-school program had been living in a crack house and acting as a mother to her siblings; her own mother had been prostituting herself to support a drug addiction. ?We asked [the young woman] to apprentice here in our kitchen. She is [now] applying to school and [hopes to] own her own cupcake shop. She has work experience now. Her mom is clean and her siblings are just siblings now because mom was reported and got the services she needed,? says Ferris.

Sarah Danielski, former lead teacher in the Center?s Montessori Preschool program, says that the NRC ?means hope for a lot of people. It means help, and it means change.?

In December 2011, Decossaux passed away after a long battle with cancer, but had been focused on the NRC until the end. ?In those final days, she was still barking out orders,? remembers Pollard fondly. ?In my last conversation with Mary Lou, ninety percent of what we talked about was the Center,? recalls Annette Cousins, who co-directed the NRC with Decossaux for four years.

?I think we got a jewel when we got Mary Lou,? says Pollard. But residents and colleagues are not alone in recognizing the impact of The Living Wage Lady. In mid-January 2012, the Virginia legislature introduced a joint resolution commemorating Decossaux?s life.

While its founder may be gone, the NRC continues to thrive. Young children come for Story Time, teenagers take tae-kwon-do classes, and adults use the computer lab to apply for jobs. Says Cousins, ?The Center took a very diverse group of people?age, income, background, race?and brought all of those people together to create what they needed for their neighborhood.? Mary Lou Decossaux would undoubtedly agree with that assessment. One of her favorite lines was ?We are all connected.?

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Matthew Kushinka owns and operates RedLine Language Services LLC, a provider of copywriting, editing, and translation services to domestic and international businesses.

The NRC focuses on education and culture, community organizing, job training, and community health. The Center relies on charitable donations from people who believe in its mission. Visit the NRC?s website to learn more (www.nrccafe.org) or visit the donations page to find out how you can give: www.nrccafe.org/donate

Tags: neighborhood Resource Center, Unsung Heroes

Category: Unsung Heroes

Source: http://www.positiveimpactmagazine.com/2012/12/30/community-center-founder-says-we-are-all-connected/

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