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GREENSBORO — Planners thought it would take a year to start a day center for the homeless.

Instead, the community came together and about two months after proposing a day center, the Interactive Resource Center opened at Bessemer United Methodist Church in January 2009.

In the year it has been open, the center has helped more than 1,100 people, officials said. Among them, 98 received help finding a job, said Skip MacMillan , chairman of the nonprofit’s board.

Those successes will be among the achievements celebrated today at a luncheon for supporters, volunteers and center participants.

“You know, we started with nothing,” MacMillan said. “Look where we’ve come from.”

The day center provides more than just shelter during the day for the homeless. It offers a place to shower and do laundry, somewhere to meet and discuss concerns and a jumping-off point for improving job skills and finding a job.

Much of the center’s success its first year is because of the many volunteers, said director Liz Seymour.

One volunteer is Craig Byrd, 35, a former client who started offering free haircuts as a way to give back to the center.

“It took me outside of myself, what I was going through,” said Byrd, who has been homeless for eight months and is now working at a church. “You’d be amazed what a haircut could do for someone.”

On Thursday, a haircut gave Dale Murray a little more pep to get through the day. He has been looking for work, struggling to pay his bills while on unemployment, Murray said. The center offered him a place to do laundry, pick up some food and get a free haircut.

“I just thank God for this place here,” he said.

In December, volunteers gave more than 1,500 hours of their time, Seymour said. About two-thirds of that time was given by current or former clients.

Next up for the day center — moving to a new home.

The center has raised more than $525,000 — including significant commitments from the city and county — to renovate a donated office and warehouse on East Washington Street into a permanent site.

The work will start once the permits are approved, a process that has begun, MacMillan said.

“Our plans are to be in here no later than early September, but hopefully, July,” he said.

The nonprofit has raised enough money to start renovations, but it will need money to furnish the new site and to pay operating costs. “We’re gonna have to count on the community,” MacMillan said.

He said he’s confident the response will be positive, based on what has been achieved in the past year during a deep recession.

The fundraising has already started, with the center reaching out to large donors and sponsors, MacMillan said.

The next phase likely will start this spring with grass-roots fundraising, such as bake sales and car washes, Seymour said.

“The reason we’re necessary is times are tough,” she said. “It has also meant we’re very good at leveraging everything we get.”

Contact Jennifer Fernandez at 373-7064 or jennifer.fernandez@news-record.com