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By MICHELLE LOVE | Staff Writer

Pelham’s Vineyard Family Services officially has a second place to call home. The organization held a special ribbon cutting on Tuesday, Nov. 9 to commemorate the opening of their new Alabaster location.

“This is a very exciting, such a great day,” said VFS Executive Director Ward Williams. “I’m so excited to see this today. We got here because of the community.”

VFS is known as the home of the Backpack Buddies, a program that provides weekend meals to food insecure children throughout Shelby County, but the program has its hands in so many more important projects. Recently, VFS was inducted into the Alabama Network of Family Resource Centers, which VFS’s Community Engagement Director Stephanie Grissom said was a huge honor.

The new Alabaster building will serve as a Community Center while Backpack Buddies and other office related work will stay at the Pelham location. It is officially dubbed as the David Wilson Building as a way to honor the Wilson family who, according to Williams, has served a vital role in making the Community Center possible.

Grissom said the new community center intends to offer fatherhood classes and community outreach activities for families.

Williams said VFS has always set the focus of rebuilding communities by educating young men and fathers about what it means to be a stand-up male figure in the lives of children.

“As an agency, if we can prevent child abuse, neglect, unwanted pregnancies, if we can prevent crime, that solves a whole lot of problems,” he said. “I grew up in a house where there were five of us with a single mom…and one of our core beliefs from day one is that if the father’s house is healthy and there is a healthy father involved in our house, then most of the problems we face in our community can be solved.”

“We have this belief that God loves each and every one of us, and He has this calling on us,” Williams continued. “When you figure out what God is calling you to do, it’s going to make a difference in your family, your towns, communities, everywhere you go.”

The ceremony was launched by a very enthusiastic “Welcome to Alabaster” from the community, and Williams said VFS is ready and excited to begin relationships with the people of Alabaster. Williams made particular mention of the strong women who helped make VFS possible including Grissom and Charity Havercroft, the grant management director.

For more information on Vineyard Family Services, visit their website Vfsdads.com.