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“If we are together, nothing is impossible.” Winston Churchill
What is the Partnership Center? More than ten years ago, St. Patrick Center CEO Leo Paradis achieved his goal to create a one-stop caring center for homeless services. The key to this success was the formation of a network of agencies that expressed the same vision. Leo recognized that this shared concept could be a national model for the care and treatment of the homeless and impoverished, and turned dream into reality.
“The St. Patrick Center Partnership Center was our response to a vision of a place where all essential homeless services could be accessed under one roof,” said Leo. “Thanks to dedicated staff and huge community support, the Partnership Center has become a standard of excellence committed to eradicating homelessness as we know it.”
In 2000, thanks to a generous capital gift from the Sverdrup Corporation, the Partnership Center was commemorated. St. Patrick Center and five other service providers moved into the 100,000 square foot building at 800 North Tucker Blvd. in downtown St. Louis. From emergency to stabilization, from employment to housing to mental health, programs and services came together in one place.
Today, the Partnership Center remains the headquarters of St. Patrick Center and 11 other partner agencies that work collaboratively to build permanent, positive change in the lives of homeless and poor men, women and their families. The Partnership Center is a national model for best practices, and St. Patrick Center has been recognized for innovation and successful outcomes.
With more than 20 housing, employment and mental health programs and 11 partners, the Partnership Center currently assists more than 9,000 individuals annually who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.
St. Patrick Center completed the Partnership Center’s 4th and 5th floors in October 2008. Thanks to a $3.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration, the newly developed space includes the BEGIN New Venture Center small business incubator, the BEGIN Training & Education Center and the Catholic Charities Conference Center.
read more about the BEGIN New Venture Center
read more about the Catholic Charities Conference Center
As the Partnership Center responds to serving more people in a difficult economy, we are reminded of Leo Paradis’ dream: the key to finding solutions are partnerships with those who share our struggles and our fight to achieve. In 2005, with the City of St. Louis and St. Louis County governments, St. Patrick Center and other local homeless service providers enacted a 10-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness. With the support of our partners and community, we will end chronic homelessness by 2015!
List of partners:
BJC Behavioral Health Services
Catholic Charities Housing Resource Center
Criminal Justice Ministry of Society of St. Vincent de Paul
Gateway Greening City Seeds Urban Farm
Greater St. Louis Dental Society
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