Prospect Hill Terrace residents' wish for a community center has been granted.
Following a petition signed by 47 tenants and a meeting with Housing Authority officials last week, a decision was made to transform a recently vacated two-story day care facility into a community center.
Starting around Dec. 1, a temporary community center will open in a vacant apartment at Prospect Hill Terrace and will feature a new computer lab. The permanent location at 24 Hanson Road is expected to be finished by December 2008.
Walter McGuire, executive director of the Waltham Housing Authority, is scheduled to meet with residents at Prospect Hill today at 4 p.m. to show them possible locations for a temporary center while the former day care is being refurbished.
"It will be in a temporary location for probably about a year," McGuire said. "We're actually using the day care to stage the construction until the job is done and then we can work on developing that empty building as a computer center."
The future center is the result of a collaboration between Brandeis University, Waltham Alliance to Create Housing and various city agencies.
Brandeis' Library and Technology Services is donating six iMac computers, and the state Department of Housing and Community Development will also donate computers to be used in the temporary center, according to Mark Auslander, Brandeis' academic director of the Community Engaged Learning (CEL) program.
"We also anticipate that various Brandeis classes, as well perhaps our community service department, will hold after-school programs at the center starting in spring semester 2008," Auslander said. "The new community center will, I expect, be the anchor of our CEL efforts in Waltham."
As part of the University's engaged learning program, students and faculty have become heavily involved in community outreach efforts at the complex and have tapped into the needs of residents living there.
"What we would like on Brandeis' end is putting on an after-school program that would include a community arts program," Auslander said. "We're just thrilled. It's really nice seeing a partnership form with the housing authority, Brandeis and the city ... we just think it's a wonderful opportunity to work on this."
This semester about 200 students in eight classes have made community service part of their homework through the engaged learning program.
Outreach initiatives have included renovations at Chesterbrook housing development and work in various elementary schools.
Jeff Gilbride can be reached at 781-398-8005 or at jgilbrid@cnc.com.
