The “Impact” of the Impact Center
By Tabitha Ervin,
Editorial Director
The Impact Center opened its doors to the community in the summer of 2020 and has been nonstop since then. A vision of Pastor Luther Whitfield since 2016, they started the process of fundraising and building in 2018, the Impact Center has done tremendous work in a short period of time and looks to continue as communities evolve and times change.
Mick Baker the Executive Director of the Impact Center and Pastor Luther have been connected over 20 years all the way back to their days working together for Youth for Christ locally. Over the years they kept in contact and one day they had coffee and this idea came up.
Mick jumped on board to support this new development for the community.
Together they raised most of the money in 10 quick months with community support and began the building process as the Covenant Community Development Corporation, an entity separate from the church.
Pastor Luther is the founder and board chairman and Mick works on development and fundraising along with partnerships and they have added Zeke Bryant as the Director of Operations who manages all programming and day to day operations along with community partnerships and collaborations as well.
I sat down with the three of them to check in on how things are going and what they are thinking for the future.
Ervin: Thanks for sitting down with me today! I appreciate your time!
So how are you all feeling about what you’ve been able to accomplish through the Impact Center so far?
Whitfield: I think we are getting there on the original vision while understanding that communities are always changing. Currently I’m thinking about the housing challenges in this community and what can we do about it.
Baker: We are continuing to work on making an impact in whatever way the community needs and we continue to adjust with the pandemic. We try to start with YES to anything that can support the Southeast community. We are focused on providing hope and help to all those who need it.
Whitfield: We are also focused on constantly evolving and understanding that we can’t do it all at the same time.
Baker: We want to always work with like minded partners in the community and not necessarily have to be the experts at everything. We’ve worked with a variety of organizations including but not limited to: Lutheran Foundation, Great Kids Make Great Communities, JAG, Parkview, Homeland Security for COVID testing, Cancer Services, ESL classes, World Baseball Academy programming, mental health and housing workshops and more!
Ervin: This is great! I always see posts about things happening here. Tell me about the community gardens and Food Truck Mondays.
Baker: We realized that there is a food dessert in this community and we wanted to support people learning and growing their own food. We started in July last year but this year we were able to start at the beginning of the planting season and we are excited about everything that is growing in our gardens.
Bryant: Understanding the food dessert but also the small amount of sit down restaurants in the area, I wanted to give families an option to be together on Mondays and help parents out so they don’t have to cook. It also brings people together from all parts of town and at the time we started it the building wasn’t open as much because of the pandemic. It’s been great to see everyone come together!
Ervin: Zeke, how did you get to the Impact Center as I know they added you to the team?
Bryant: I was pursuing a career with the church originally and Mick advocated for me to work for both so not only do I get to lead the Communications and Media ministry for New Covenant but I get to lead as Director of Operations for the Impact Center.
Ervin: Tell me about the future and what you all see going forward.
Whitfield: We have about 30 acres of land and we still have so many more ideas from a walking path with lighting to a soccer field. We already have the baseball field and we want to add another rim to our basketball court. Eventually we want to build another building which will be the sanctuary and allow the current building we are having services in to be a youth center.
We look forward to evolving and doing what we built the buildings for, to serve the south side! We are committed to this community.
Bryant: I have so many ideas! As I think about engaging both youth and families, I think about having an indoor field house but also an outdoor turf space for various sports including lacrosse, soccer, football and more. With an indoor space we can host tournaments and so much more.
On the program side I’d love to get engaged with a space for skilled trades practice. We can already host lectures in our current building.
Also new offerings like GED completion, Microsoft office training, parenting classes and more!
I really love my job and the work I get to do in the community! From partnerships with new entities to building relationships and engaging in new programs as well as hosting various events. I enjoy seeing the smiling faces and bringing people together!
Ervin: Thank you all for your time and I look forward to seeing everything the Impact Center will do for the community and with the community!
