Downtown Shenandoah, Inc. (DSI) received a First Federal Charitable Foundation grant to help support the purchase of architectural plans for the development of the proposed Center for Education, Business & Arts (CEBA).
The proposed project involves construction of a 37,131 gross-square-foot facility on North Main Street in Shenandoah’s downtown business district.
The four-story innovation center portion will feature DSI’s offices, retail spaces, a variety of maker and artist spaces, a business incubator and co-working spaces, a community event space, multiple culinary kitchens, a community computer room and conference room, warehouse/storage/shipping rooms, offices and a classroom for Penn State, and a presentation space with bleacher seating that can hold more intimate events for the community.
Karen Kenderdine, president of Downtown Shenandoah, Inc., said, “This grant funding is important to our project as we are having a capital campaign to raise matching funds to build a center for education, business and the arts. It will be a place for individuals to start or expand their business, provide educational opportunities and serve as a community hub. A place for people to be the creator of jobs, not just look for jobs – this gives them ownership and pride in their community and benefits everyone.”
CEBA’s mission is to provide educational, artistic, recreational and economic opportunities that create jobs, increase household income, build community and enhance the quality of life in the Schuylkill County region. DSI officials plan to use the CEBA to serve adults in the region who are looking to transform into local entrepreneurs and support entrepreneurship as a way to revitalize the region’s underutilized commercial and industrial spaces through running a business incubator to support new ventures as they grow to the point of being sustainable in their own building.
Kenderdine said the organization is grateful to the First Federal Charitable Foundation for its support.
“Organizations like the First Federal Charitable Foundation are invaluable to our communities. They know and understand the local community and their support helps to move us onward and upward. We are very fortunate that First Federal had the foresight to make an investment in a foundation to benefit our communities perpetually,” she said.
The First Federal Charitable Foundation was established to support worthwhile community causes. It strives to nurture nonprofit institutions and programs that will effectively serve those in need from the community, empower nonprofit institutions and programs that will expand their presence in and services to the area, and promote opportunities for new nonprofit institutions and programs that will serve the unserved.
Nonprofit organizations with a 501(c)(3) IRS designation that are located in Luzerne, Schuylkill, Carbon and Columbia counties are eligible to apply. Any organization whose headquarters is in another county but services either Luzerne, Schuylkill, Carbon or Columbia counties may apply for a grant to be used in one of those counties.