ROANOKE, Va. – The EnVision center is almost ready to serve the community after two years of planning and a pandemic.
Jasey Roberts, the marketing manager for the City of Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority, hoped this will make a mark on the Roanoke Valley.
“I meet so many people every day that I make connections with and that I care about. I know that people are struggling and I know that this center is going to help them,” Roberts said.
The center is opening soon to give people a one-stop location to access community services.
“We’ve had this center in our central office for several years, I think since 2020, and now we are ready to have it open in a bigger, better-centralized location,” Roberts said.
One of their key features will be mental health services, which are free to anyone with or without insurance.
“Anyone can walk in the door,” Roberts said. “And I think that’s really really important because it’s breaking the boundaries and the barriers of mental health care so that it’s available for everyone.”
The center will also provide access to college and career counseling with Virginia Western.
“These things are afflicting our community,” Roberts said. “We’re in the middle of a housing crisis and so giving people opportunities and resources to potentially better their situation, find economic empowerment, personal growth all of these things are going to be very useful to people who are both in our residences, but also the Roanoke community at large.”
The EnVision center is located at the former Melrose Library and plans to keep public access to computers and the internet.
“That’s something I really enjoyed about going to public resource centers like libraries,” Roberts said. “Very much in the tradition of us being located in the Melrose Library, we are continuing to offer those services to people here.”
Roberts said this development has been years in the making and hopes the impact will be widespread.
“Anyone can get any kind of help or service that they might need,” Roberts said.
The center held a grand opening ceremony last week, but they plan to officially open to the public in the coming weeks.