St. Malachi Church has a 140-year history of serving its surrounding Old Angle and Ohio City neighborhoods, a community historically living below the poverty level. In 1985, St. Malachi Center was founded to extend the church’s outreach through formal programs and services. Early programs included tutoring for youth, services for the homeless, and meals for families which have been reformulated over the years and continue to this day. St. Malachi Center is an anchor in this community, continuing to serve the low-income residents of CMHA or Section 8 housing on the Near West Side, and expanding our programs and services in response to this community’s changing needs. Since the Center opened in 1985, the number of individuals and families seeking assistance has increased every year. (In 2006, SMC served 250 families, including 617 individuals and 258 children.) In 2009 due to the economic climate we have drastically cut our services to the community. We were forced to cut all of our adult education and training programs. We closed our retail facility, Malachi Mart. The Mart helped us to supply some of the most basic needs to CMHA residents who lived close by and are hampered in their ability to travel. We have used the current economic crisis as an opportunity for organizational analysis and restructuring, including building our board and staff. We have refocused our programming back on responding to the community’s most pressing issues which include homelessness, families, and childhood education. We have begun 2010 debt free.
