FLINT, MI – A Flint-based non-profit that helps residents enter the workforce opened a new facility this week, expanding its footprint on the city’s north side.
A ribbon cutting and grand opening were held on Wednesday, Oct. 8, at the 8,300-square-foot facility, located at 3070 W. Pierson Road.
“We choose to be in the north end of Flint,” St. Luke N.E.W. Life co-founder and executive director Sister Carol Weber said during the event. “We choose to be here amongst the people that we know need us and deserve us.”
The organization purchased the previously vacant building for $400,000 in summer 2024, St. Luke N.E.W. Life Center Director of Operations Bob Nelson said.
The building was originally occupied by a tire shop and, more recently, it also served as the home of a wig store.
A little more than $800,000 was spent to make improvements to the building and equip it to suit the programming offered there.
Funding for the project was provided by individual donors, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, and the Ruth Mott Foundation, Nelson said.
“We’ve heard north Flint residents say they value pathways to employment and spaces where community members feel supported, and St. Luke N.E.W. Life Center is a model of those principles in action,” Raquel Thueme, president of the Ruth Mott Foundation, said in a statement. “This expansion not only helps revitalize this business corridor but also helps connect more people with the training and job experience they need to thrive.”
St. Luke N.E.W. Life Center was founded by Weber and Sister Judy Blake in September 2002.
The organization has been offering employment programming since 2008.
“When I think of 23 years ago when we had the courage to start a program, never, ever dreamed it would blossom into what it has become,” Weber said. “And to me, that’s an exact and clear work of God, not us, because we didn’t know what we were doing.”
During the grand opening on Wednesday, community members toured the facility, which was blessed by Fr. Tom Firestone.
Weber was also presented with a proclamation from U.S. Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet.
The facility will serve as the new home for the organization’s social enterprise business program, through which residents are employed.
“It also is a really good way to establish a little bit of that pride in who you are,” Nelson said of the program.
The building features an area for landscaping and construction storage as well as a sewing room, where enterprise business employees make products for various clients, including vests for Stormy Kromer, the Ironwood-based brand known its rugged wool caps.
“We don’t pretend to be the only employer,” Weber said. “We are the first employer. And we train them to be part of the community which they have come from.”
More than 20 employees work at the new facility, and 11 more program participants recently graduated from the organization’s 11-week training program and will soon begin working there as well.
“We have hundreds and hundreds of people out in the community that now have a job who never would have without our help,” St. Luke N.E.W. Life Center Board of Directors President Dick Ebbott said.
Seamsters were already utilizing the new sewing room on Wednesday, including Flint resident Oliva Young who has been with the center for 12 years.
“It gave us jobs, and it actually got us off of welfare,” Young, 73, said. “They have food, they have clothing, and counseling, just everything that you need.”
Young noted she’s happy with her new and improved workspace.
“I love it,” she said.
The lawn care portion of the building is dedicated to Blake, who Weber credits for starting organization’s lawn care business.
Blake died in 2022 at 78 years old. A photo of Blake hangs in the new lawn care area in her honor.
“She began the training for the men, and she said yes to their response to her,” Weber said. “And look what’s happened. Because she said that, yes, she believed in them before they ever believed in themselves.”
In addition to serving as the headquarters for the organization’s enterprise business, the new facility will clear up space for the programming offered at the center’s existing building, located at 3115 Lawndale Ave., which will remain open.
Other programming and services provided by the organization include its food pantry, literacy program, eye clinic, clothing distribution, employment preparation, job training, and more.
Additionally, the organization also plans to expand training for skilled trades, which is offered through its employment preparation program.
“Our mission is to empower at risk families to become self-sustainable,” Weber said. “A job with dignity empowers us to become self-sustainable. This new facility brings that vision to life in ways that we never, ever dreamed possible. It empowers individuals with dignity, skills, and the ability to work.”
The new facility will also allow the organization to safely store landscaping and construction equipment inside.
Previously, the equipment would be stored outside, and catalytic converters were stolen from all the organization’s vehicles at its existing property about five years ago, Ebbott said.
Additional information about St. Luke N.E.W. Life Center is available online at stlukenewlife.com.