Sometimes it takes a helping hand to get a fresh start. That’s what a new "Center for Excellence" hopes to do now that's it's opened up to the public.
The new center is part of Aiken's Housing Authority. The authority touches an estimated 12,500 people in this community and this new center will help people who are trying to improve life skills.
Glady's Wright has been a resident at Stony Homes Apartments for 3 years. She's very excited about the new Center for Excellence and says she's blessed.
Gladys Wright (Aiken, SC): "Blessed, I am truly blessed because this is a vision from God."
Wright plans to open her own catering business and this center will give her that opportunity.
Gladys Wright (Aiken, SC): "This will help me learn to go on the web and maybe put my ideas on the web, do spreadsheets because I would need to know how to do that and stuff."
The center for excellence is a new tool made available by the Aiken housing authority for its residents.
People learn resume writing, core keyboarding and internet skills, access bank accounts, pay bills on line, reach out to loved ones and much more.
CEO, Ivory Mathews says the center has been in the works for a little over 9 months. She calls it a "launching pad."
Ivory Mathews (CEO): "We maximize our resources and we're doing more with less, but we have taken the technology that we have in our center and decided to create this center of excellence which is going to be the gateway to improve our customer's lives."
Mathews says this is a small sign of what is to come.
Ivory Matthews (CEO): "We're going to take what we learn here and we're going to make it better for our residents we look to the growth to the future and the improvements of the lives that we reach."
And for community members like Gladys Wright, who is already reaching in the right direction... she's eager to get started with her own company.
Gladys Wright (Aiken, SC): "Anything that you want, you got to work for it, because it's not going to come free."
You don't have to be a resident of the housing authority to take advantage of the new center. Aiken residents can use the services as well. If you would like more information on the city of Aiken Housing Authority's Center of Excellence, go to www.aikenhousing.org. And tell them WJBF sent you!
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