The Baldwin Center, located in Pontiac, serves members of the community, from the homeless that come to eat at the center, to the volunteers who serve the meals.

The center offers a variety of services, including a soup kitchen, a clothes closet and educational services for youth and adults.

According to Alex Plum, community affairs coordinator at the Baldwin Center, the center’s mission to feed, clothe, educate and empower is the cornerstone of everything that they do, but it is done in the context of building relationships.

“With the economy the way it is, we’re seeing a lot more people coming in with basic needs, but the common theme is this need for connection, this need for relationships,” Plum said. “There are the people who need those physical needs and the volunteers who need that connection. They feel empowered just like our clients will.”

The mission: feed, clothe, educate and empower

The soup kitchen, which serves over 60,000 meals a year, provides a hot meal every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. On Tuesdays and Thursdays a dinner is served from 5 to 6 p.m.

Debra Szczecinski has been attending the soup kitchen sporadically since the center’s 1981 beginning. She uses the soup kitchen to help stretch the food stamps she receives.

“They do what they can,” she said. “They don’t have to do this. We appreciate that.”

The Clothing Closet at the Baldwin Center is where over 13,000 people a year choose clothing.

Patricia Stevens has been the director of the Clothing Closet for 16 years. One of her most memorable stories is the story of a woman whose house had been burned down. The center helped her get back on her feet and within two weeks she was volunteering at the center.

“Stories like that I love,” Stevens said. “Seeing people trying to better themselves and move on where they’re doing better.”

The center also educates both youth and adults. They offer an after school program for students K-8.

For those who have not finished high school, the center also has a GED preparation program.

“We’re not here to sign people up for the program,” Herman Proby, director of adult and family education at the center, said. “We’re here to help people actually get their GED.”

Once students are enrolled in this program, the center pays the $175 fee for the GED test.

The center and Oakland

The Baldwin Center and Oakland University are constantly working together. Many of the programs that OU is a part of include the youth educational programs.

Professor Tanya Christ established a reading program at the center. Here, OU students come and read to Baldwin Center students and help them with their reading skills.

In addition to the educational programs, OU has developed and implemented a health and wellness program at the center called C.A.T.C.H. The program is a “participative fitness program” meaning that once players are “out” of the game, they must go on to do something else that is active, like push-ups, and then return to the game.

Lisa Machesky, who received her MBA from OU, has been the executive director of the Baldwin Center for three and a half years. She is proud of the relationship between the center and OU.

“We’re expanding at a time where a lot of non-profits are cutting their services, at a lot of that is because of all the Oakland University programming,” she said.

—-Contact senior reporter Sarah Hunton via email at [email protected]