Struggling Old Louisville Community Center Strives to Make a BIG Difference

The Brick House is a struggling Louisville community center on 2nd Street in Old Louisville. Aside from all ages entertainment, they also provide many beneficial community social services and are a nonprofit organization.

The Brick House does many things to educate the community on current events and get them involved. Aside from educating the local community, this Louisville community center offers space for local musicians to perform for an all ages audience.

According to one of the board of directors, David Morrison, the Brick House is always open to Louisville musicians performing on Fridays or Saturdays, and doesn't mind if the band charges a cover charge as long as they get some of the door to help keep the community center open. They are also looking for 100 fans of the Brick House to donate $5 a month to help cover their overhead. Anyone interested in performing at the Brick House should contact him at krake17@hotmail.com or call him at 052-210-0204.

One of the important services the Brick House offers is a reading tutorial program. Volunteer reading tutors offer FREE tutoring for children that need help with reading. They are always looking for more children that need the help and for more volunteers that want to help. Literacy is a big deal at the Brick House and two of their rooms are full of books for community members to read.

This Louisville community center also offers a "free store". If someone in the community is in need of clothes or other items, they can visit the Brick House, and the Brick House will do their best to find what they need in their collection of donated clothes and items.

The Brick House is a big supporter of the idea of collectives with everyone looking out for each other and helping where they can. This Louisville community center has many collectives that people can get involved in. Their collectives include a library collective which also holds spoken word events and book sales , a bicycle collective which is a free bicycle repair workshop and recycle station, a building and garden collective, an arts collective, and a "food not bombs" collective that allows them to prepare free meals for low income and transient families. An exciting recent development is their radio collective. They have their own low power radio station at 92.7 which they share time on. In the next couple months, the Brick House also hopes to add a coffee shop atmosphere and event that will provide an open mic for poets, musicians and comedians.

The Brick House community considers the Louisville community center a "Do-it-yourself" community center. The Brick House is like an umbrella for the different collectives and programs that go on there that are run by the people participating in them.

The Brick House is focused on learning how to "go green" and educate the surrounding community on conservation. As they work to renovate their center, they have had many people begin to step forward to offer their professional knowledge and services.

The Brick House is a group of friendly volunteers and citizens who want to educate themselves and the community, bringing more arts, information and awareness to the community of Louisville. They are always open to donations, volunteers, fresh ideas and services. Their website is at www.brickhouse.cc.