Community Partnership ready for open house

Supplies are still being unpacked and some of the furniture has not arrived, but the Community Partnership of Southeast Missouri will be ready to welcome the public at its new headquarters Friday.

The Community Partnership, also referred to as CPSEMO, recently moved into the former Cape Girardeau Police Department headquarters at 40 S. Sprigg St., which has undergone a complete renovation to accommodate the organization as well as the needs of its partner agencies and the individuals and families they serve.

The public is invited to tour the facility from 8 a.m. until noon Friday and witness a ribbon-cutting at 11:30 a.m.

Participating in the ribbon-cutting and opening ceremonies will be representatives of several municipal governments and chambers of commerce throughout Southeast Missouri, including those in Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Sikeston, Poplar Bluff, Perryville, Scott City and Bollinger County.

Those communities and regions represent some of the areas served by various programs and agencies associated with the CPSEMO, explained Tony Buehrle, the organization's director of program advancement.

Receptionist Beverly Holloway greets clients and visitors at the Community Partnership of Southeast Missouri offices. Her reception area is approximately where a Cape Girardeau Police Department desk sergeant once sat when the building served as the department's headquarters.JAY WOLZ

The two-story, 13,800-square-foot building housed the Cape Girardeau Police Department from 1976 until 2018, when the department moved to its current location adjacent to Arena Park. CPSEMO purchased it from the city in April 2019 for $100,000 and has used a community development block grant, tax credits and donations to help fund its $2 million transformation.

The renovation left few reminders of the building's former purpose, although iron bars are still visible on the second floor in CPSEMO's Jailhouse Cafe, where inmates were once housed in the city jail.

"The cafe is actually going to be a training opportunity for folks that are trying to get back into the workforce," Buehrle said. An open area next to the cafe, referred to as The Commons, will be a place for staff and volunteers of various not-for-profit agencies to gather and features a wall-sized mural dedicated to CPSEMO's donors and other supporters.

The building's first floor includes offices and services intended to provide direct assistance to people in need, including an area once used by police to store recovered property. That area will now be known as the NeighborHUB, offering meals, laundry services and showers for the community's homeless population.

"It's a respite area for them," Buehrle said, "but it's not for overnight stays. We moved into the building on May 10th, and by the end of that week we had people using it."

Community Partnership of Southeast Missouri executive director Melissa Stickel has settled into her new office on the second floor of the former Cape Girardeau Police Department headquarters on South Sprigg Street. Community Partnership will host an open house from 8 a.m. until noon Friday.JAY WOLZ

CPSEMO, originally known as the Community Caring Council, was founded in 1989 by former state Rep. Mary Kasten to encourage social service agencies and community organizations to collaborate and coordinate the delivery of services to individuals and families in need.

The organization changed its name a few years ago to better reflect its regional outreach for Bollinger, Butler, Cape Girardeau, Dunklin, Mississippi, New Madrid, Pemiscot, Perry, Scott and Stoddard counties.

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