LEWISTON – A group working to raise money to reopen a downtown support center for women hopes to have the doors open this fall.

So far, they’ve got $4,000 for the new Center for Wisdom’s Women. Their goal is to raise $25,000 for three months, or $100,000 for a year. It could be run on less if it opens a few days a week instead of five.

Formerly called the Wisdom Center, it was established in 1999 on Sabattus Street and moved to Bates Street before closing June 20 of this year.

The center was run by the Daughters of Wisdom in Islip, N.Y. That religious order said it could no longer sustain it, and the nuns who staffed it were near or past retirement age.

The Daughters of Wisdom agreed to pay the rent until September to give time for money to be raised, and donate furniture and equipment in the 10-room center to the new group. “There’s no capital expense. You could never start this again,” volunteer and board member Klara Tammany said.

If the new Center for Wisdom’s Women raises $100,000 for a year, that would buy time to apply for grants and build a donor base, said Tammany, a parent educator for Advocates for Children.

So far, much of the fundraising is being done online. “If Barack Obama can raise millions on the Web, we can raise $100,000,” Tammany said. “It’s a long shot, but we’re going to try. … A bunch of us got together who volunteered here and feel passionate about the need.”

Other supporters include an occupational therapist, several Bates College and St. Mary’s Health System employees, social workers, including one for Volunteers of America, an Episcopal priest, a spiritual director, and a Sexual Assault Crisis Center worker.

Nancy Audet, another volunteer, said she got involved after someone she knew was devastated because the Wisdom Center closed.

“Great things happen here,” Audet said. “Women come to get support, and they give support.”

During the past nine years, 1,000 women have been helped, and last year the center had 5,000 visits. “There would be a huge hole if it wasn’t here,” Tammany said. “There’s no place like this. It has changed lives.”

One of those with a changed life is Ronni Sterling, 39, of Auburn, one of the center supporters. Three and a half years ago, after Sterling ended her marriage, “I had nowhere to go, no way to pay the rent. I was broken spiritually, emotionally and financially.”

She came to the center. The nuns referred her to groups that helped cover her rent. At the center she made friends. “I became a person again,” she said.

Sterling is learning how to write grant applications to help the center secure funding.

Noella Cote, 57, Lewiston, is another who said the center “saved my life.”

In 2003 she had suffered a stroke, was in and out of the hospital. Before she was ultimately diagnosed with MS, doctors didn’t know what was wrong. Meanwhile her daughter had a nervous breakdown.

“I wanted to give up,” Cote said. A friend told her to go to the center.

She did, and saw women involved in activities and support groups. “They needed volunteers. I volunteered.” She had a reason to get out of bed, a place where she was needed and could give back. “In return I got a lot.”

Cote is volunteering to do public relations for the new group.