Brevard Neighborhood Development Coalition, or BNDC, recently held its annual Anchor Breakfast in Melbourne. The event was an opportunity to celebrate successes and look forward to upcoming projects.
BNDC has partnered with Brevard County residents to overcome poverty and crime and transform the communities into places of hope. Florida Community Loan Fund provided financing for renovation of homes in the Greater Heights neighborhood, which resulted in a drastic reduction in crime in the area. (Read more, Brevard Neighborhood Development Coalition, 13 Feb 2012.) FCLF has also partnered with The DOCK outreach center, providing services for children, teens, and the elderly. (Learn more in this article: Q&A with BNDC’s Lynn Brockwell-Carey, 24 Feb 2015.)
Below is text from a recent article in Florida Today, highlighting BNDC’s plans for the 6000-sf Evans Center, which will include a grocery store, community center, and wellness facility. Read the entire article from Florida Today here.
Faith-based group works to revive neighborhoods
J.D. GALLOP, FLORIDA TODAY, May 13, 2016
There was a song of thanks and accolades for ministers, civic leaders and residents joining efforts to overcome the stranglehold of poverty and crime to transform their communities into places of hope.
Now the Brevard Neighborhood Development Coalition – a faith-based organization – is readying to do the same thing with plans to build the 6,000-square-foot Evans Center, Inc. grocery store and community center with a wellness facility to help revitalize the northwest Palm Bay subdivision. The group is also funded by the United Way of Brevard in addition to other donors.
“It’s a wonderful economic development asset,” said Lynda Weatherman, president and CEO of the Economic Development Commission for the Space Coalition, speaking before the group’s 10th Annual Anchor Breakfast at the Hilton Melbourne Rialto. The Evans Center remains in the development phase pending talks between the project’s board and the city of Palm Bay, which owns the land and previously agreed to the project.
This Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., volunteers are holding a Farmers & Flea Market at the Evans Center site, 1361 Florida Ave., for residents. The market is held every second Saturday.
“It has everything, it will enhance the neighborhood and give the community a real sense of place,” Weatherman said, adding that the Evans Center could also bolster property values and provide other forms of economic enhancements for the neighborhood.
The breakfast brought together at least 300 people, including ministers, business leaders, volunteers and students with the goal of raising awareness about community efforts to take back the streets and give residents a sense of renewal with their projects.
In the past, the coalition turned its focus on the Booker T. Washington neighborhood in north Melbourne. Before, the neighborhood was stricken by shootings and other crime; Residents, already mired in poverty, talked of change.
By 2009, the coalition opened an 18-unit complex for low income families, combining the restoration with spiritual mentoring and outreach.
There is also the Dorcas Outreach Center for Kids, also known as the DOCK, a 3,500 square-foot learning center in the same neighborhood which provides activities and biblical training for area youth.
Trevor Howard, the director of the DOCK, praised the BNDC’s benefactors and volunteers for their dedication. “There’s a lot of love and support for what we’re doing,” Howard said.
James Bartell, president of the board that oversees the Evans Center project, said the BNDC’s vision of enhancing the livelihood of residents remains the main goal. The south Melbourne, northwest Palm Bay neighborhood is one in which the majority of residents do not own a car and that the nearest grocery store is over 1.4 miles away. “The Evans Center will have fruit, vegetables, fresh meat along with preventative health care and job training. This won’t be a little (convenience store),” Bartell said.
