The Hallie Q. Brown Community Center is celebrating 96 years, looking towards the future
A St. Paul, Minnesota, organization that's been helping the community for nearly 100 years is under new leadership and looking to expand its role.
You'll find the Hallie Q. Brown Community Center in the heart of the Rondo Neighborhood serving as a lighthouse of the community.
"We are a 96-year-old organization we are in a new phase of our legacy and our story," said Benny Roberts, Executive Director at Hallie Q. Brown.
Roberts is the new executive director of the Hallie Q. Brown Community Center a place he says helped shape him into the leader he is today
"This is where I grew up and this is where I was raised, so the center is very important to me," said Roberts. "So, I get to come back home and serve the folks and lead the folks that led me as a kid."
Hallie Q. Brown was founded in 1929.
It began as a settlement house for African Americans denied services from other agencies and evolved into a muti-service center for all people.
"In the early 1900s there was really no place for our community to thrive," said Roberts. "It was built by our community and for our community and it became a staple that people know they can go to for their basic needs to serve the most marginalized in our community our elders, the hungry our children and when we became consistently known as that it was the lighthouse not just for the Black community but for the community as a whole."
Well documented are the activities Hallie Q. Brown did and still does bring to community. From its food shelf to programs for children, teens and our older generation.
Arts and culture are also a part of this legacy, including the Penumbra Theatre, now the largest African American Theatre in the country.
"They have always pivoted to the needs of the community," said Roberts. "I see us being a communal resource hub."
Roberts would like to see a Ramsey County Service center here, right now the closest for people who live in the Rondo and Summit neighborhoods is in Roseville. Roberts also sees the organization expanding to help meet the needs of all who call St. Paul home.
"We're in a food desert I see us building a grocery store we've been holding history in this community for almost 100 years, and I see us expressing that into a museum," said Roberts. "I see us having restaurants and coffee shops and shops here where this is a one stop shopping attraction that generates jobs, but it also keeps the community's identity alive."
This is a new season for Hallie Q. Brown and Roberts believes it will prove to be just as relevant now as it was when it first opened.
"Everyone is looking for an organization an institution that can really be the leader and corral change in our community and people still see Hallie Q. Brown as that lighthouse it's still alive even more today."
