WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — The Community Partners Campus has been in the works for years, but one of the organizers of the non-profit center says there’s been a vision for the shared space dating back to the 1980s.
Brian Gumness says his vision has always been to bring local non-profits together to create a space where those in need can take care of multiple appointments in one location, but for a long time, there was always one major hurdle.
“Would the non-profits in the area be able to collaborate and work together?” said Gumness. “Historically, they are in competition with each other for funding, resources, and other things of that nature.”
He says over the last 20 years he and others in the funding community were able to bring those groups together. But the complications didn’t end there. Questions about who would own and operate the space also needed to be addressed. Gumness says as the years went on the idea remained idle until a few years ago.
The idea evolved into a one-stop shop for those in need of services such as health care, food, or rental assistance. Now Gumness says any family or person in need can walk into the building and get nearly anything handled in one stop.
“[Let’s say] one family walks in, a mom and two young kids, they need food and one child has a cold. [on top of that] they may be about to lose their rental space because they can’t pay rent. They can come into this building and get help from three different agencies just like that,” said Gumness.
Among the organizations that now call the campus home are Blessings in a Backpack, Catholic Charities, The Wausau Free Clinic, The Neighbors’ Place, and The Babies’ Place. Marathon County Human Services and North Central Health Care also operate some services out of the building.
The facility is now one of more than 500 such facilities nationwide.
