Beacon House, San Pedro’s long-standing addiction recovery home, received a $1.25 million check from Assemblymember Mike Gipson, D-Carson, on Wednesday, Aug. 9.
The Beacon House Association of San Pedro, which was founded in 1970 at the corner of 11th and Beacon streets, will use the state money to expand the Bartlett Center, which houses the organization’s cafeteria facilities. Those facilities are used in the center’s workforce training program to give residents hands-on experience in food service.
“Ultimately,” Gipson said, “this capital improvement project will allow Beacon House to accomplish its mission and treat more people suffering from addiction.”
The funds, he said, will help increase health and security for “some of the most overlooked men in a vulnerable community,” leading to “a safer, more prosperous, and more inclusive neighborhood for all of us.”
The money will “allow us to build a state-of-the-art community center,” said Beach House Executive Director Archie Hoggan, who is also a program graduate, “that will serve more men grasped by addiction, as well as provide more meals to our unhoused neighbors.”
The Bartlett Center remodel is expected to lead to an increase in daily meals served to residents and the unhoused, doubling the meal program’s impact, according to information provided by the program. The training on-site will also help program members be better equipped for independent living.
“The Bartlett Center is much more than a building to the Beacon House,” said Beacon House Director of Program Services and graduate Robert Davis. The center, he added in a written comment, “is an integral space for our clients where community and recovery happen.”
The center was named for the Rev. Art Bartlett, an Episcopal priest known as “Father Art” throughout San Pedro. Bartlett was a longtime supporter and served as a chaplain for the Beacon House. Bartlett died in 2011.
Beacon House residents also…
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