The mission of the May Dugan Center is to help people enrich and advance their lives and communities.
The Near West Side Multi-Service Corporation was incorporated as a 501 (c) (3) on July 30, 1969. In 1974, with support from the City of Cleveland’s Department of Development, the current facility was designed and constructed at 4115 Bridge Avenue in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood. The facility was named the May Dugan Multi Service Center to honor the late May Dugan, a long-time resident of the neighborhood who had been a one-person advocate and counselor for her neighbors in need.
Today, the May Dugan Center is a lifeline for 6,500 individuals and families in the Greater Cleveland area who need effective and meaningful programs that will improve their lives and their communities. Through our six core programs, we are helping to provide an array of services including food, clothing, behavioral health resources, adult education and job search support, victim services, trauma counseling and more.
During the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, the May Dugan Center has not only kept serving, but it continues to support our community through adapted programming to ensure people continue to receive essential services. We also have seen a major spike in demand for our food pantry services. In one week alone during an April distribution, we distributed over 26,010 meals (and 50% of the people we served had never used a pantry before.)
In this time of great need, we have also had to make the difficult decision to cancel our Irish Roots Festival this year. This was a tough call to make. The Irish Roots Festival is an incredibly important event for May Dugan Center. In addition to celebrating our roots, the event raises substantial funds used to support the Center’s programs and operations-- but we needed to prioritize the health and safety of everyone involved. We explored other ways to keep the event as scheduled; however, we could not find an alternative given the current circumstances.
Our clients rely on us to make it through the economic constraints of COVID-19 and we can't do what we do without your generosity. While our biggest fundraising event of the year may be canceled for 2020, it will return in 2021. Until then, we hope you will take action to support the May Dugan Center and the thousands of people we serve each year through the 2020 Rock Family of Companies Community Challenge!