After a full year of uncertainty, Senators Smith and Klobuchar and Representative Omar advocated for — and won — community project funding to upgrade Phyllis Wheatley Community Center with passage of March 9 appropriations bill.
Phyllis Wheatley Community Center is proud to announce that we’ve received nearly $2 million in federal congressional appropriations funding, thanks to our Minnesota U.S. House and Senate Congressional Leadership’s support.
Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith and Representative Ilhan Omar each secured $632,500.00 in community project funding for Phyllis Wheatley Community Center in the U.S. Congressional spending bill package signed by President Joe Biden on March 9.
The combined $1,897,000 included in the appropriations requests will give Phyllis Wheatley Community Center a much-needed renovation, creating a space for our Mary T. Wellcome Early Child Development Center learners to thrive and creating space for participants in our restorative programs to heal and set new courses for their futures, and allow for community to come together to address the issues that affect them most.
“This funding will give us the opportunity to serve our clients with dignity, in a space where they can feel comfortable and safe, working through the issues they face and finding commonalities upon which community is built,” says Phyllis Wheatley's Interim Executive Director, Valerie Stevenson. “It will also allow us to address urgent maintenance needs that have thus far gone unattended to due to a lack of funds and our need to focus our resources on our clients’ more urgent needs.”
Phyllis Wheatley Community Center wishes to extend its deepest gratitude to Senator Smith, Senator Klobuchar, and Representative Omar for the months of advocacy spent to procure funding for the organizations that work to improve conditions for the people they represent in our Congress, and to the many staff members who have worked alongside them to bring these funds back to our community, where they’re needed most.