A place for programs to benefit all age groups.

That’s the future of Mercer County Catholic Youth Organization executive director, Thomas G. Mladenetz envisions for the Bromley Neighborhood Service Center in Hamilton on East State Street tha the non-profit agency will soon begin operating.

For about a decade, the municipally operated, 8,000 square-foot center had offered after-school and summer academic programs for students, evening programming for teens and career counseling and computer classes for adults.

In mid-August, in what the Trenton Times reported as a combined effort to revitalize the center and save costs, the township awarded a $345,000 three-year contract to the CYO to operate the center in the landmark former firehouse where it is located.

Mladenetz noted that during the privatization process, CYO officials listened to feedback from the community and their concerns about something for everyone, including older residents, will be offered there.

One of the things CYO officials heard “loud and clear,” he said, was the need for programs for seniors. “We are looking for something for everyone. We are coming in ready to listen and we want to get feedback.”

The CYO will hold an open house for the community Nov. 23 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. to get more feedback. “It will be an opportunity to make suggestions and meet the staff,” he said.

There’s a tremendous need for community services in the area, he said. “We will partner with Head Start in at least a portion of the building,” he said, noting that the summer camp will be a fixture of the offerings as will a teen program on week nights, after school tutoring, a computer lab that is open to everyone in the community and a food pantry as well.

A relatively new social hall on the second floor of the building will be a place that the community can rent for events such as wedding and baby showers, he said.

“We know what has been offered in the past and we are coming in with a lot of good ideas. We will be looking at offering something for everyone. Certainly there will be a big family focus and community-wide events, including the Thanksgiving dinner event.

He called it an opportunity for the CYO to r un programs that will make the center, which is handicap accessible, a real hub of activity for all the residents of the area and said it fits well with other programs the CYO is running throughout the area.

“We took over the Martin House Learning Center – now known as the CYO East Street Center – a little over a year ago and our main site on South Broad Street in Trenton has been operating since 1964.

“For the past six years, we have been running programs at the Hallowbrook Community Center owned by Ewing Township…We have a good track record,” Mladenetz said.

He noted that the CYO also runs the before and after school programs in four of Hamilton Township’s elementary schools. “Two of the schools are in the Bromley neighborhood – the Greenwood School and the Klockner School.”

“We know a lot of the families,” he said. “They have come to us and they know our programs. They are a good connection for the community center.”