The Paul Laurence Dunbar Community Center will move to a new building as part of an effort to get back on its financial feet.

It is moving from its current building at the corner of Hansen Avenue and Fairground Hill Road to the Net Outreach building at 100 Center Ave. It has been in its current building for 35 to 40 years.

“It’s getting the agency back to a very stable point,” said Heather Dovenspike, center executive director.

Dovenspike said this year the center lost funding from the United Way of Butler County and from Butler County Community Action. It also temporarily lost money from the state and the U.S. Department of Agriculture due to a glitch.

This led to the furlough of the center’s staff.

Before this happened, the center had three full-time employees and 12 part-time employees. Currently, only two people work for the center, and they are considered volunteers, not employees. This includes Dovenspike.

The loss of funding also led to the delay of the center’s after school programs at Broad Street and Center Avenue elementary schools.

In May, Dovenspike talked with the Butler Collaborative for Families, which is a group that helps nonprofits. That group is helping the center restructure its board of directors and working to get it more funding and support.

Bill Halle, CEO of the Grace Youth and Family Foundation, which operates the Net Outreach building, and is a past co-chair of the Butler Collaborative for Families, said Dunbar has worked with Grace Youth on programs in the past, so working with Grace Youth now made sense.

“I think it’s a good fit for us,” Halle said. “Obviously, we were happy to help.”

Halle said Grace Youth will not charge Dunbar rent for now, allowing it to first get in a better financial position.

Dovenspike said most of the current programs that the center offers are not done in the building, so the move is not inconveniencing any of them.

“It was an easy transition,” Dovenspike said.

Although the center will be sharing a building, Dovenspike said it will have more space at the new building.

“It’s a safer, more useful space,” Dovenspike said.

She hopes Dunbar will be fully moved in by the end of November.

The center’s current building is under contract for sale. Dovenspike would not say who was looking to buy it or reveal a price. Those funds will help improve the center’s financial position.

Additionally, on Thursday the center received a $1,500 donation from the Butler County Association of Realtors.

Dovenspike said the center was able to have its summer programs this year. The after school programs will return Jan. 1.