Thirty years of giving back at Bay View Community Center

Linda Nieft’s father was an orphan dependent on other people’s goodwill. When he returned to the United States from World War II grateful to be alive, he started a family and instilled in his children what Nieft recalls as a “real strong moral code.”

“He was so grateful that he was able to support his family that he felt his family should give back,” said Nieft, who grew up in Chicago wanting to be a social worker.

She ended up earning a business degree instead. But after seven years in business, in 1983 she switched gears, taking a job with an unassuming community center then on Kinnickinnic Avenue. She’s been with this social service agency ever since.

Now president and CEO of the Bay View Community Center, which traces its history back 30 years, Nieft has continued her father’s tradition by giving back to the extended family at the center.

The Beginnings

In 1978 a group of parents banded together to form an after-school daycare program for children in an Avalon Theatre building storefront.

This outreach program funded by the Milwaukee Christian Center spawned both the Bay View Community Center (then called the Southeast Community Center) and the United Community Center.

The Southeast Community Center staff would often help elderly women up a huge step on their way into a knitting shop in the Avalon building that was a popular social gathering space.

This literal helping hand led to a partnership with Interfaith Older Adult Programs, Inc., then a fledgling organization dedicated to helping older adults. The community center then began older adult programming with Interfaith.

In 1980, the Bay View Community Center officially came into existence, and received United Way funding. The United Way remains a major donor to the center.

An early partnership with the Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC) established a tradition of programming for parents and families.

When Nieft arrived in 1983, the center had been doing parenting classes with MATC for about a year. Nieft said the classes were not so much about parent education as family education, which was a new concept at the time.

“Before that, organizations worked with kids as kids and adults as adults. Part of our mission is that we really see a child as a part of a whole because there are so many things that affect a child in the family. Our organization was really at the forefront of that concept,” she said. “Parenting classes bring in a lot of good parents. People have this concept that parenting classes are for people who beat their child. It’s just the opposite. The ones that have enough education who realize that they need to know more are the ones who come in.”

Current Location

The YMCA originally built, owned, and occupied the building the center now occupies and later sold it to the Faith Baptist Church.

When the Bay View Community Center tried to buy the building from then-owners Faith Baptist Church in 1989 for a purchase price of around $200,000 they were almost turned down for a mortgage.

But Nieft said the YMCA, with whom the center had collaborated, stepped in on the center’s behalf at the 11th hour.

The center’s loan was approved and today only $60,000 remains unpaid, she said.

Food Pantry Need Growing

The center’s food pantry began in 1982 in response to the needs of blue-collar workers who were facing layoffs in large numbers. Nieft said that churches came to the center and asked if it would run a food pantry. The churches promised to support it.

“To their word,” Nieft said, “there are churches here that [still] collect food for us every Sunday.”

Recently, Nieft said she noticed an upsurge in the number of people who use the pantry. She has even seen people who carpool to the center to pick up food because of the high price of gasoline.

Nieft said the number of people using the pantry has doubled over the past three years. About 400 people use the pantry per month and receive a five- to six-day supply of nutritionally balanced food. The program serves about 150 families.

In 25 years, Nieft has seen former food pantry recipients come back as donors. She has also met people who participated in the family programming years ago who as empty nesters return to take adult classes. Others return when faced with the challenges of caring for an elderly parent.

Completing the Circle

When people come for support or services, Nieft always wants them to feel at home and that they are among friends.

“Compared to going to a huge hospital that is so clinical, here you sit around and drink coffee,” she said. “We have cookies. People need to be comfortable when they’re sharing.”

She seems to have a gift for bringing people of all ages and backgrounds together.

Nieft recalled a United Way summer program when she told the kids that some adults were supporting the program-and also that when the kids got to be adults, then they would sponsor some kids.

“We’re lucky that in this community we have people who have more resources to help the people who have fewer resources. We’re sort of in the middle,” Nieft said.

Community Center Vital Stats

More than 2,700 people pass through the doors of the Bay View Community Center, 1320 E. Oklahoma Ave., every year. Total visits to the center top 17,000.

While mostly from Bay View and vicinity, they come from seven counties to participate in programs for family and parents, kids, teens, adults, and adults over 50. There are offerings in arts and crafts, food and nutrition, recreation, and life skills, as well as trips and tours.

The visitors to the center range in age from six weeks to 104 years. There are more than 125 offerings at affordable prices in the center’s current summer/fall program catalog.

In addition, the center’s food pantry supplies food to some 1,700 families and provides a five- to six-day supply of food to around 4,400 people annually. Food donations from individuals in the community and from the congregations of 33 participating churches account for about $50,000 a year in food donations.

The center operates on a budget of $542,000, with about $200,000 of that donated by community members. United Way contributes approximately $158,000 and the adult programs generate about $90,000 in revenues. There are also other smaller donations and grants.

For more information about programming or services, visit bayviewcenter.org or call (414) 482-1000. Bay View Community Center is currently selling Entertainment Books and is holding a book sale this fall.