96-year-old Charlotte nonprofit to close, transfer services to Ada Jenkins in Davidson
In January, when Tameka Gunn tried to access unrestricted funds for Community Link, a Charlotte-based nonprofit she leads, that account was blocked.
At the time, the Trump administration started suspending federal funds for many nonprofits, including the 96-year-old Community Link, which uses the allocation to assist dozens of homeless and at-risk families with housing. Community Link relied on more than $3 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Gunn said.
With no other funding options available to cover operations, to pay staff, or keep the doors open, leaders at Community Link say they are closing on Friday, Gunn said. Its premier offering, the Asset Building program, however, will transfer to the Ada Jenkins Center, a nonprofit in Davidson dedicated to fighting poverty.
“I wanted to ensure that at least some of our programming could still be beneficial in the community,” Gunn said.
The Davidson nonprofit opened in 1998 to help people living in Huntersville, Cornelius, Davidson, and Charlotte with education, economic mobility services, a health initiative program, and other services.
Bringing in some of Community Link’s programs will add to the Ada Jenkins Center’s mission and allow needed programs to reach those north of Charlotte, said Harold Rice Jr., who heads the center.
The Asset Building programs include pre-home ownership education, counseling for first time homebuyers, a foreclosure prevention program, loan modification sessions and a free tax program.
“Our mission is that we exist to create economic stability,” Rice said. “But we were only doing that through rent assistance. The Asset Building piece allows us to go beyond with home ownership.”
“People just don’t think that there’s poverty” north of Charlotte “and there is, unfortunately,” Rice said.
How the Ada Jenkins Center helps
Neighbors trickled in on a recent Thursday at the Loaves and Fishes food pantry, one of several programs offered at Ada Jenkins.
Volunteers prepared brown bags in shopping carts and small vases of flowers for the list of scheduled visitors. Three rows of shelves held toiletries, canned goods, non-perishable items and produce grown in the community garden.
Transportation is a barrier for a lot of Ada Jenkins clients, Rice said, but now these housing programs will be reaching residents in Huntersville, Cornelius and Davidson.
“A lot of people do not get out of the community, so it’s very good that it’s coming to us,” said Crystal Shipp, a Davidson resident who often comes to the pantry.
Shipp is renting an apartment and is looking to become a homeowner herself. She, along with other community members, such as Eleisha Heinks, said they will be using those new programs.
“Unfortunately, we’re constantly seeing an increase of need,” said Rebecca Esque, the food pantry coordinator. “We’d like to not be needed and work ourselves out of a job, but at this current time, the need seems to be growing, so we continue to help more and more people. And this allows us to be able to do that.”
The Community Link transfer adds seven free tax sites to the Ada Jenkins Center, which currently has two.
Tax sites will now be available in Huntersville, Davidson, Allegra Westbrooks Regional Library, West Boulevard Library, Ada Jenkins CLT, Sugar Creek Library, Chosen City Church — Steele Creek, Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont, and Levine Center in Matthews.
The Ada Jenkins Center provides family financial and utility assistance, a food pantry, community garden, a community refrigerator, gym facilities, freedom school and an after school program serving children in K-5 who are behind their grade level.
According to Gunn, the Asset Building program will have the same grants and donations after its transfer.
Who was Ada Jenkins
The center is named for Ada Jenkins, who was born in 1882 and hailed from a prominent African American family in Arkansas, according to the Davidson Historical Society. Back in the 1930s, she was a schoolteacher.
Jenkins rallied the community to raise enough money to help build the Davidson Colored School, which opened in 1937, after a previous wooden schoolhouse in the Mock Circle area in Davidson burned down. It later was renamed the Ada Jenkins School after her death in 1955.
When Mecklenburg County Schools integrated during the 1960s, the Ada Jenkins School closed, but reopened as a community center.
More on Community Link
Founded in 1929, Community Link began as a Travelers Aid Society to assist people who were stranded in Charlotte.
The organization shifted to assisting individuals and families who are homeless or at risk of being homeless through rehousing programs. These programs are mainly funded through HUD along with some state grants and city contracts, Gunn said.
Since then, Community Link has expanded into 16 North Carolina counties and has helped more than 25,000 families and individuals — including thousands who became homeowners, the Observer previously reported.
Gunn believes the Ada Jenkins Center is a natural fit for Community Link because both missions align. Rice also worked at Community Link for 14 years and previously managed the Asset Building program.
“I feel like everyone will be able to make the change very well,” Gunn said, noting she and her staff are familiar with ” ... his style of leadership.”
Gunn will become the chief program officer at The Ada Jenkins Center and Marsha Clark, the program manager of Asset Building Services at Community Link, will keep the same role.
Community Link will no longer be located in its Charlotte building but will be able to meet with clients as needed since they will have access to the space, Gunn said.
