Children sing and dance on stage Friday afternoon in a building at the corner of Spring and Hampshire streets in Auburn. Salt & Light Community Center in Auburn placed a deposit on the building it hopes will become its permanent location. Friday was the first time the children got to visit the property. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

Last Friday, a small group of Auburn youths skipped along Spring Street, anxious to see what they pray will become the new home for a grassroots organization hell-bent on saving families living in downtown Auburn.

Salt & Light Community Center founder Darlene Conant lives amid one of the most impoverished sections of the city. It is home to the most at-risk families and where a quarter of Auburn’s crimes are committed.

“We are surrounded by drug dealers, gunfire and rampant poverty,” Conant said as she and four of her “children” were making T-shirts in the basement of Auburn Church of the Nazarene.

The church allows her to use space to hold meetings and lead projects. She also conducts programming and projects at her home and in nearby Chestnut Street Park, but hopes that will all change if her group secures funding for a facility of its own.

Koby Harmon looks through an iron-on-transfer Friday afternoon that he was cutting out for a T-shirt at Auburn Church of the Nazarene at 40 Summer St. in Auburn. He and several of his friends and staff at Salt & Light Community Center were making 65 T-shirts for Hope Haven Gospel Mission in Lewiston. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

Conant is no stranger to family struggles and drug addiction. Her children are grown now, but in 2015 she lost her oldest child to an overdose. That tragedy sparked an awakening and profound spirituality in her.

“God placed a vision upon my heart to provide the youth of my neighborhood a place where they could find safety, support and hope, where family relationships are restored, addiction is overcome and healthy habits become a way of life,” she said.

Conant began to organize community gatherings and reached out to those in need.  In 2020, she founded Salt & Light Community Center, a nonprofit organization based out of her home and the neighborhood church at 40 Summer St. The center has raised enough money to put a down payment on a 10,500-square-foot building at 29 Hampshire St., at the corner with Spring Street.

The center’s mission is “to engage and equip neighbors and volunteers to live healthy and balanced lives as demonstrated through the love of Jesus Christ.” Its vision is “to restore family relationships, promote freedom from addiction and foster changed hearts as healthy habits become a way of life.”

Bryce Tremblay, left and Darlene Conant apply an iron-on-transfer to a T-shirt on Friday afternoon at Auburn Church of the Nazarene, where their Salt & Light Community Center group has been meeting. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

Before visiting their prospective new center, a group of four neighborhood children were hard at work making T-shirts, part of their work and mentor programming that provides a little spending money and gives them a sense of purpose and camaraderie, all in a safe and loving atmosphere.

“This is such a great environment where everyone is so kind. It’s been a blessing to have this in my life and a way to help continue my faith in Christ,” Jaeden King, one of the neighborhood regulars in the program, said.

King and her peers promote the core values of Salt & Light that they sum up with the acronym LIFE and a series of “We will” statements. L is for love: “We will love God and love people.” I is for integrity: “We will serve our community with honor and respect.” F means faith: “We will be steadfast in our service to Christ and to our community.” And E is for empathy: “We will extend the grace and mercy of Christ as we offer hope and healing.”

Koby Harmon looks out a window in a building at the corner of Spring and Hampshire streets in Auburn that a group he belongs to, Salt & Light Community Center, hopes to purchase. Friday’s visit was was the first time some of the children were visiting the building at 29 Hampshire St. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

While the center has about a dozen volunteers working with a core group of a few dozen children, Conant said she feels their messages have been impacting parents and others in the community.

“The message is spreading and we are committed to bringing back pride in the neighborhood, working toward prevention before cure,” Conant said.

With a dedicated building, she said she plans to offer programming, educational opportunities and a robust addiction program for adults and families.

Salt & Light has had several major benefactors and received many donations that have allowed the nonprofit to put a down payment on the Hampshire Street property, but the group must raise much more to buy the building and realize Conant’s vision.

To donate or find out more about the center, see www.saltandlightcommunitycenter.org.