Celebrating its 120th year, the Dumas Wesley Community Center in Mobile’s Crichton neighborhood provides a range of programs for the city’s working poor and homeless. According to Kate Carver, executive director of Dumas Wesley and this week’s Q&A subject, the average household income of people the community center serves is less than $25,000 a year.

Among the many services the community center offers are two transitional housing programs for homeless women and children: the Sybil Smith Family Village in Mobile and the Baldwin Family Village in Fairhope, which opened earlier this year. Both programs offer wraparound services and a rigorous program to get families back on their feet.

Carver has worked with Dumas Wesley for 12 years. A lifelong advocate, Carver says she rang bells for the Salvation Army as a child, and her first job was working at a domestic violence shelter as a teenager. Here, she discusses the challenges that homeless people face in Mobile and how readers can help.

Questions and answers have been condensed and edited for clarity.

When I interviewed Rev. McClellan last year about the Baldwin Family Village, he gave me an overview of what they were hoping for the program. And now, it’s been open for four or five months is my understanding.