Brightside Project has new home downtown

SALEM -- The Brightside Project has a place to call home in downtown Salem and now they're ready to welcome the community to see the bright and cheerful space during an open house from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday at 138 S. Broadway Ave.

"This building for us means stability in the community, to have a constant presence to allow us to reach out to more kids," Brightside Project Co-Director Lisa Wallace said.

Visitors to the open house will be treated to refreshments from Ezio's, learn about the program and services provided and meet with the Brightside Project team.

Wallace and her father, fellow Co-Director Scott Lewis, founded the organization in October 2016 as a means to reach out to children in the community who may be experiencing hardships in their lives and need help with basic needs. In turn, the idea is to show them that hope exists so they can succeed. Board members include William Dawes, Sondra O-Donnell and Lew and Vicki Thompson.

According to a card about The Brightside Project, "Our goal is to meet the basic needs of children in Columbiana County through food, clothing and personal care items so that we can begin to meet their social emotional needs through mentorship, friendship and love. We believe that the programs and services we offer will equip and empower children to reach their full potential by building resiliency and giving them hope."

The program took the message of hope to the streets in the low-income neighborhoods of Salem when it first started out, with pop-up distributions of non-perishable, child-friendly food items taken directly to the children. The group also started a school supply drive, asking community members to fill up a bus with supplies to distribute to local teachers for their classrooms.

Wallace said the initial vision was a mobile unit. The fundraising needed for that dream didn't catch on, but they continued to serve the community and start venturing out of Salem and into Columbiana County, which had been the goal all along to reach children in all the underserved areas. She said they want to broaden their reach, especially into areas like Wellsville, East Liverpool and Salineville. For example, they launched the community book box initiative in Salineville last year, placing some books in a box in low-income neighborhoods as a means to promote literacy. Since starting it, the community has sustained it by keeping the box filled with books that children can take.

In December, the Brightside Project sponsored Bright Christmas to provide toys to children in the Salem area. The event took place at the former Dollar General/G.C. Murphy site in downtown Salem, with refreshments, holiday music and Santa and Mrs. Claus on hand. It was then that the organization's "story of perseverance and pressing on" turned toward home. Larry Paxson, who had a downtown building space available, showed up and told Wallace and Lewis about it.

Wallace said it had "been difficult to grow the organization when we didn't have a home base."

Now do they ever -- bright light blue walls and orange chairs decorate the front room which will serve as the distribution center for children and their families. The room is currently filled with Easter baskets for the Bright Easter event from 6 to 8 p.m. April 18 and 10 a.m. to noon April 20 for children ages 3 to 12 years old. Children will receive an Easter basket, snack and a drink. The programs are geared to children from preschool to 12 and are income-qualifying, but Wallace said children who qualify for food assistance or Medicaid qualify for their programs.

The space includes a work room for putting together packages for distributions, an office space for Lewis and Wallace, who both have full-time jobs elsewhere, and storage. They've been working on transforming the building to a bright, calming space where kids can relax, feel calm and feel safe, receive hope and know they are valued.

"I'm excited," Wallace said.

"We have kids in the community who have experienced trauma and they need to see there's a bright side. We need support from the community to keep moving forward," she said.

This year's Masquerade Ball fundraiser is scheduled for Oct. 19. People who want to contribute to the Brightside Project can do so online at the website, through AmazonSmile or through Rite-Aid Kidcents. The group was awarded a $5,000 grant from Rite-Aid and is the only Columbiana County organization that's part of the Kidcents program, meaning shoppers at Rite-Aid can register online to round up their change and have it go to the Brightside Project. To learn more, visit KidCents.com. She said they're getting more support from local churches and they want to partner with members of the community.

"We're gaining momentum and we're excited about that," Wallace said.

Plans call for a survey to gauge the degree of trauma being experienced by the children served so the Brightside Project can determine if they're meeting their needs and what more they need to do.

To reach the Brightside, call 234-564-0148.

mgreier@salemnews.net