Our Community Place is a community center created by a former Salvation Army building located in Harrisonburg, Virginia, United States. The building was converted to a community center after Ron Copeland acquired ownership in 1999. After a lengthy renovation period, the center opened to the community in August 2008.
History In 1999, Ron Copeland, owner of the Little Grill diner purchased the then-vacant Salvation Army building at 17 East Johnson Street in Harrisonburg, Virginia — with hopes of creating a community center as an extension of the weekly soup kitchen he operated at his restaurant on Mondays. After a period of rehabbing the building, Our Community Place opened to the Harrisonburg, Virginia community in August 2008. With Copeland serving as director, OCP staff and volunteers soon became "overworked" by a single aspect of the organizational mission: serving as a day homeless shelter. This led to a decision by the board of directors to close the center temporarily on September 1, 2011. After a brief "hiatus" to allow for review and redirection, the center reopened October 11, 2011. Copeland said OCP was not undergoing a "reincarnation as a change so much as a refocusing on its original mission."
Reopening After reopening, and Philip Fisher Rhodes took over as executive director. Community center hours were significantly reduced. Of this change in leadership, and his additional role as founder-pastor of Early Church — a Mennonite congregation that met at OCP — Copeland said, "I had three full-time jobs, and I gave up two of them. . . I'm very excited to begin focusing on the work of the church I'm a pastor of." The center, which had been offering its lawn as a place for area homeless to shelter in tents, was forced to end this policy in the summer of 2019 by the City of Harrisonburg. The city made it clear that "under the current laws our zoning does not allow for overnight sheltering.” This change in availability of space for the homeless to stay forced the city to consider developing other options, while freeing OCP to focus on its priority programs. As Nickels stated:
OCP’s mission is not as an overnight shelter. We’re trying to do this for the community and for folks who are homeless, but once that time period is over we need to go back and exclusively focus on our day programs. City Manager Eric Campbell stated city staff had been working for months to identify gaps in the local services offered to homeless people and wondering, “How do we begin to address these gaps?”
Community role OCP operates and manages a community center where community meals, recreation, and work and training opportunities are offered.
Meals OCP provides "17,000 meals a year to the city’s homeless and others with food insecurity." It also operates a restaurant every Friday at lunchtime, with a guest chef from a local restaurant or food service preparing the meal. The center serves 100 people or so at Thanksgiving each year; its volunteers additionally delivered 40 meals to "people in need around the community" in 2022. Holloway Roofing, based in nearby Weyers Cave, hosts a charity cookout for those in need at OCP each July. This year it wanted to do more to give back during the holiday season. Owner James Holloway says of the effort, “We want to put our money in places where we’re able to actually make an immediate impact right away. We’re affiliated with lots of different ways of giving back and we always try to do that in a way where we’re able to touch the families that need it."
Shelter Other shelter services for the homeless in Harrisonburg look to OCP to provide overflow support when the weather turns particularly cold. As Ashley Robinson, shelter director of the Open Door Thermal Shelter, said during a cold snap in January 2022, “What we’ve been looking into is possibly extending hours and working with other organizations like Our Community Place, just trying to keep our unhoused neighbors safe and warm.” The center opens on weekends for such emergency use. OCP extends its hours during extremely cold weather, requiring additional shelter monitors during the day. OCP also provides relief from the heat of summer. As case management specialist Amanda Morris states: "we provide people kind of a cool place to come in just to hang out and get outside of the heat.” Providing for affordable housing for all is a major aim included in Harrisonburg's 2039 Vision Plan. In accordance, in November 2021 the City Council agreed that part of the city's $23.8 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds should be used to provide a permanent homeless shelter. The City of Harrisonburg announced in June 2022 it intended to purchase a 6,730-square-foot building situated on 3.72 acres of land on North Main Street from Shenandoah Presbytery for the purpose of converting the property into a permanent, low-barrier homeless shelter. Nickels stated, “We have an opportunity now as a community to plan comprehensive homeless services. How can we effectively put together those services in a way that really helps folks to move on from homelessness?” When Open Doors, the low-barrier shelter system housing up to 50 people each night on James Madison University property, ceased operation in August 2022, some "unhoused" Harrisonburg residents were considering other options, including sleeping on the sidewalks around OCP. Center staff participated in a meeting of city and community leaders hosted by Harrisonburg Mayor Deanna Reed to discuss short-term options for providing overnight shelter.
Water As part of a new program called “The Humankind Water Drop” Humankind Water set itself the goal of delivering 100,000 liters of water to homeless shelters across the country. In August 2021, the organization donated water to Mercy House in Harrisonburg, whose Executive Director, Shannon Porter, planned on sharing with Our Community Place and the Open Doors shelter. "There's a lot of people on our streets right now that need this type of assistance. It is hot during the day and there is no shelter for them during the day so this is going to be put to use very quickly,” she said.
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