Salvation Army dedicates center

The Salvation Army dedicated its new $3.6 million Family Resource Center on Wednesday, consolidating the charity’s Spokane services on one campus in east Spokane.

The 20,000-square-foot facility at 204 E. Indiana Ave. now houses the Salvation Army’s food bank, emergency family shelter and social services in the remodeled Sturm Heating and Air Conditioning Building.

The Family Resource Center is an example of the community “stepping up” to provide much-needed services, said Spokane Mayor Dennis Hession, who proclaimed Wednesday Salvation Army Family Resource Day.

The project is the second phase of construction following a $12 million capital campaign launched by the charity in 2000, according to Salvation Army spokeswoman Christy Markham.

The first phase, completed in July 2004, was the 30-unit transitional housing apartments, now nearly fully occupied.

The new facility, located in the same block as the transitional housing and the Salvation Army’s administrative offices, houses a self-serve food bank, family services, a demonstration kitchen for teaching life skills and a computer-training lab that will provide access to parents seeking jobs online and help children with their studies.

It also provides 18 rooms with kitchenettes and private baths for families in crisis, replacing the former Salvation Army Family Emergency Center at 1403 W. Broadway Ave.

“The center provides the tools families need to escape poverty,” said Maj. John Chamness, of the Salvation Army Inland Northwest Region.

Major funding for the project was provided by Avista, a Spokane Community Development Block Grant, the Washington Department of Community Trade and Economic Development, the Comstock Foundation, Harriett Cheney Cowles, WASMER, the Paul Allen Foundation, the Gates Foundation, Robert B. Goebel and the Johnston-Fix Foundation, among others.