As part of its 50th Anniversary Celebration this year, Brighton center has introduced a “50 Years, 50 Stories” series to highlight some of the customers, volunteers, donors, community partners or supporters who are part of its history.
The Northern Kentucky Tribune has partnered with Brighton Center to share some of those firsthand accounts with our readers.
In the coming weeks, the Trib will publish individual stories that demonstrate the breadth of services Brighton Center provides in Northern Kentucky.
Occasionally some slight edits may be made in the text and, to protect confidentiality, we might only provide the first name of the storyteller.
These testimonials, however, describe some of the programs and services Brighton Center has provided in its first 50 years, in the words of the people who have benefited from them.
“Brighton Center has helped me become a better person and helped teach me to give something back,” Rick
I first became involved with Brighton Center in the late 1970’s when I was on the Newport Advisory Council as Business Representative from Radac Corporation. Around that same time Brighton Center was looking for new board members.
I was a friend of Bob Borchers who was Brighton Center’s Board President and President of the American National Bank at the time. It was Bob who encouraged me to get involved. The Board in those early years was mostly made up of neighborhood residents and some local volunteers.
We had dedicated people then but we also longed for the day when we could broaden our appeal and attract board members from different backgrounds to help us grow in visibility and talents.
I have always been most impressed with the dedication of the staff to the Mission of the Center and how they take ownership of their programs to follow that mission. The no nonsense conservation of available assets with the highest program successes was always the result of true ownership.
I am proud to have been involved with the Center in one way or another for all these years and to see it grow into a highly effective and respected agency serving well thought out community needs.
Besides the Center’s success in helping and inspiring people to “become all that they can be” the Center has become a major force in providing housing opportunities to low income customers and they have built the best high quality brick and mortar facilities for elderly housing in all of Northern Kentucky.
Personally, Brighton Center has helped me become a better person and helped teach me to give something back.
My memories of being involved several different times with both the Center and Brighton Properties are rewarded in being a real part of things and working closely with Bob Brewster in those early stages of development of sometimes controversial programs and housing projects that would become important to the community for the future.
I’m inspired by the way the founders and staff of Brighton Center have built longevity into the operation of the Center over the past five decades and set in place the future continuity of service to the Mission.
From its beginning in 1966 as a modest Newport storefront, Brighton Center has grown to provide a range of programs and services which include meeting basic needs, adult and early childhood education, workforce development, substance abuse recovery for women, affordable housing, financial education and counseling, and neighborhood based programs.
Last year Brighton Center impacted the lives of 60,892 individuals from infants to senior citizens through 37 programs in Northern Kentucky and Greater Cincinnati
For more information about Brighton Center and its programs and services, or to become a volunteer, click here http://www.brightoncenter.com/