The mission of the Weed Community Center Project was to strengthen and unify the City of Weed, California and nearby communities by providing year-round civic, social and recreational activities for people of all ages by designing, constructing and operating a Weed Community Center (WCC) Building.  As initially conceived by Kenneth Ford, the WCC would focus on providing wholesome recreational, educational, and wellness activities for the area's youth and seniors.  In addition, this central facility could fulfill the Weed Community's needs by providing a venue for a wide variety of community events.

ORIGINALLY PLANNED WCC PROGRAMS AND FACILITIES

      After-school programs, tutoring and homework support
       Scouting and other Youth Group meetings
       Senior programs, Caregiver training/respite 
       Health and Wellness outreach and Fitness Center
       Education and Career Development opportunities
       Banquet/Conference seating for 500, with Commercial Kitchen

WCC/WCRC CURRENT STATUS

       The boards of the Ford Family Foundation and the McConnell Foundation who originally had granted funds to implement the WCC project have now closed their files on the project, and have declined and withdrawn their WCC challenge grant.  The loss of this grant funding effectively ended the functioning of the old WCC board.  Following the WCC board's effective dissolution and its divestiture of Weed's Community Programs and Activities, these essential activities have been assumed by the Weed Community Resource Center (WCRC) organization. To formally achieve the divestiture, the WCRC was recently spun-off from the control of the defunct WCC Board. The WCRC is now conducting business and running essentially all of Weed's Community-oriented activities under the management and fiscal auspices of the Weed Revitalization Coalition (WRC), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
       The WCRC is currently housed within the centrally-located Weed Mercantile Mall (at 590 Main Street in downtown Weed), and is able to fulfill all of the originally planned WCC Community programs and activities with a few minor building modifications. Banquet seating in the Mercantile would be about 300, which would still be adequate for the needs of the Community.     
                     The (WCRC) is now providing a wide range of Community-based activities that the entire Community can easily access and benefit from. The WCRC employs Joyce Oliver as its Executive Director, and is currently operating in the Mercantile with a staff of three individuals and many part-time Community volunteers. 
       The WCRC and its wide range of program offerings is currently filling the gaps that have been identified in Weed's cultural, civic, wellness, recreational and educational activities, while addressing the needs of under-served populations, such as low-income families, seniors, women and children.
       The entire Weed Community needed to come together around one new coordinated Weed Community Center project plan. WRC/WCRC jointly presented a new grant application to the Ford Foundation for the WCC project to be revived at the Mercantile location, and to receive new grant funding. WRC and WCRC spearheaded this renewed Community effort to finally establish a centrally-located Community Center for the citizens of Weed in the obvious choice, the Weed Mercantile Mall.
       Unfortunately, the Weed Recreation and Parks District (WR&PD) then submitted a competing proposal to the grantors which utilized the "Great Northern" building on schoolhouse hill as the venue for the Community Center.  Even though this building has repeatedly been shown to be inadequate in space by at least a factor of two, they persisted in their vain attempts to use the building.  As a result, the grantor's have denied both requests, preferring to see a unified community choice for the location.  As a further result, the entire Weed Community Center project is now on permanent hold until the WR&PD withdraws its proposal for use of the unrealistic location within the Great Northern building. The WRC/WCRC partnership is still willing to pursue the previously offered joint effort between ourselves and the WR&PD that supports the Mercantile as the one and only obvious choice to house the Weed Community Center.