Our Community Place (original) (raw)

dbo:abstract

Our Community Place is a community center created in a former Salvation Army building located in Harrisonburg, Virginia, United States. The building was converted to a community center after Ron Copeland acquired ownership in 1999. After a lengthy renovation period, the center opened to the community in August 2008. (en)

dbo:address

17 East Johnson Street (en)

dbo:alternativeName

OCP (en)

dbo:buildingEndDate

2008

dbo:buildingStartDate

1999
2001

dbo:country

dbr:United_States

dbo:location

dbr:Harrisonburg,_Virginia

dbo:seatingCapacity

108 (xsd:nonNegativeInteger)

dbo:status

nonprofit

dbo:thumbnail

wiki-commons:Special:FilePath/Our_Community_Place_Harrisonburg_VA_July_2007.jpg?width=300

dbo:type

dbr:Community_centre

dbo:wikiPageExternalLink

dbo:wikiPageID

65831995 (xsd:integer)

dbo:wikiPageLength

34770 (xsd:nonNegativeInteger)

dbo:wikiPageRevisionID

1124357784 (xsd:integer)

dbo:wikiPageWikiLink

dbp:address

17 (xsd:integer)

dbp:alternateNames

OCP (en)

dbp:altitude

38.455765 (xsd:double)

dbp:author

Ron Copeland (en)
Eric Olson-Getty (en)
Sam Nickles (en)
Shannon Porter, Executive Director of Mercy House (en)
Sam Nickels, executive director of Our Community Place (en)
Leons KaBongo, Place Activities and Programming Coordinator (en)

dbp:buildingType

community center (en)

dbp:caption

Building exterior in 2007 (en)

dbp:completionDate

2008 (xsd:integer)

dbp:groundbreakingDate

1999 (xsd:integer)

dbp:imageAlt

Our Community Place building (en)

dbp:locationCountry

dbr:United_States

dbp:locationTown

dbr:Harrisonburg,_Virginia

dbp:mapAlt

map of Harrisonburg, Virginia (en)

dbp:mapCaption

Harrisonburg, Virginia (en)

dbp:name

Our Community Place (en)

dbp:openedDate

2008 (xsd:integer)

dbp:parking

rear/street (en)

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left (en)

dbp:quote

OCP focuses on creating a space where people with diverse experiences can pause and hear themselves scream for help from within. When you are knocking on doors and no doors will open, this will be the place to go to,” he said. “There is no place like OCP. It is a home away from home where everyone that walks in those doors can take a breath without being judged. That is the spirit if OCP and that is why we open the doors.” (en)
It is very hard on people to live on the streets. Having little access to bathrooms, showers, difficult places to sleep, cold, being able to find and keep a job, fears about losing your belongings, fears for your personal safety, getting to medical appointments, and so many other challenges are made so much worse by not having shelter. (en)
It’s really a resource that is going to be very helpful to us and not just our shelter, but our community. We plan on sharing this donation with Our Community Place and the Open Doors shelter. There’s a lot of people on our streets right now that need this type of assistance. It is hot during the day and there is no shelter for them during the day so this is going to be put to use very quickly. (en)

dbp:references

EIN 54-1835664 (en)

dbp:seatingCapacity

108 (xsd:integer)

dbp:source

Mayor Deanna Reed (en)
OCP director of development and administration (en)

dbp:startDate

2001 (xsd:integer)

dbp:status

nonprofit (en)

dbp:text

We’ve lost a lot of money from fundraisers that have not happened, but we’ve gotten a lot of support from the government’s PPP program , The Community Foundation emergency fund, and our donors have also really stepped up." (en)
I remember one woman who moved in, and then she came back to me and said ‘My mouth is sore because I haven’t smiled this much in forever.’ (en)
At O.C.P., we’ve had people sleeping on our property. They are technically not supposed to be doing that. We have nobody there to sanction it or keep it safe or monitored. (en)
We didn't just want to be a place for homeless people to be able to have a day shelter or whatever and serve people food. That's not all we did. It's just that was so overwhelming, it was hard to develop programming aligned with our vision, which is to bring people of different walks of life together. (en)
The OCP building does not meet the fire safety and building code required by the State of Virginia for accommodation spaces. It is not easy to turn away people who are in need, however as city leadership it is our responsibility to ensure people are safe. We cannot approve anyone who is in violation of the required safety and building codes. Harrisonburg is a fast-growing community, which mean our vulnerable populations are also growing. We have to come together as a community to address these issues. (en)

dbp:website

https://ourcommunityplace.org/

dbp:wikiPageUsesTemplate

dct:subject

georss:point

38.455765 -78.864641

rdf:type

rdfs:comment

Our Community Place is a community center created in a former Salvation Army building located in Harrisonburg, Virginia, United States. The building was converted to a community center after Ron Copeland acquired ownership in 1999. After a lengthy renovation period, the center opened to the community in August 2008. (en)

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