Inside a building on South Fairfield Street in Littleton, classrooms line the hallways. It’s not exactly a school, but kids and adults may study here. In one classroom, there’s a cycling class. In another, a substance misuse recovery program. Spanish words and guitar strumming echo out from other rooms and down the hall, people peruse produce in a market area.

Formerly East Elementary School, the building is now East Community Center , a public gathering place that hosts and supports local organizations that work to serve and enrich the community.

“The center is looking to become a one-stop resource hub,” said Jose Cardenas, the center’s director. “We can offer resources and programming in one space that hopefully can meet the needs of the community members, all under one roof, in one location.”

The center opened its doors in the fall of 2023, about two years after the Littleton Public Schools Board of Education decided to consolidate two elementary schools, leaving the building empty. East Elementary and Ralph Moody Elementary merged into a separate, new campus, Little Raven Elementary.

The district then initiated a community engagement process to determine what kinds of programming neighbors wanted to see in the empty building. The resulting center now hosts 15 organizations and collaborates with more to provide after-school and youth programs, a food bank, educational classes, wellness services and more.

In addition to music classes, leadership programs and tutoring, Cardenas said the center is working with the YMCA to host youth camps and sports this summer.

In the future, there will also be classes for kids to learn how to use technology to produce audio and videos.

The facility also hosts organizations that help adults.

“We offer mental health services for our Littleton Public Schools staff members here,” Cardenas said. “We have Arapahoe/Douglas Works in the building to help with job readiness and job search opportunities.”

Organizations pay rent for their spaces in the center, Cardenas said, adding that the district offers flexibility in rent since many groups are nonprofits.

“The idea is to kind of fill up the space with programming,” Cardenas said. “We don’t want to price them out from being in here.”

Seeing the groups develop relationships and collaborate has been fulfilling, he added.

“It’s been very natural for these partners because they know of each other in one form or another,” he said. “To have them all under one space and kind of watch these partners settle and develop their programming and then kind of work with each other to provide those services … has been the best part of this so far.”

The center has a market-style food bank hosted by St. Andrews United Methodist Church , where families can shop for free food, diapers and hygiene items on Thursdays. It also partners with Break Bread , which offers freshly cooked to-go meals at the center on Wednesdays.

The building is located in a primarily immigrant, Spanish-speaking neighborhood, according to a district report . Cardenas said the center serves many families who speak Spanish and English and works to make information accessible in both languages.

The center has also started working with a group called Ukrainians of Colorado , which Cardenas said will likely soon expand the center’s work to three languages.

The City of Littleton provided $340,000 in grants to help pay for the management of the center, and the Littleton Public Schools Foundation provided $30,000 to support the community engagement process before the transition, district communications director Diane Leiker said.

The district provides the maintenance, security and communications systems for the facility.

The center’s classroom spaces are now all occupied, Cardenas said, but the center is adapting other spaces to be able to partner with more organizations.

“We’re trying to be very creative in terms of the layout of our spaces and even looking into shared spaces,” he said. “We don’t want to turn down anybody because we know they’re here to help the community.”

Cardenas said many families have emphasized how important the school and its building were to the community, and they wanted that spirit to continue in whatever came next.

“I think that’s kind of why people fought so hard for it to be turned into a community center,” he said.

He said the center has more ideas for programs it wants to explore, such as English as a Second Language classes. He hopes his team can keep the momentum going to find fitting partners and serve as many community members as possible.

A calendar of programming, including food bank and class information, is available at https://littletonpublicschools.net/ecc/calendarevents .