Neighborhood Ministries

Neighborhood Ministries

Serving communities

Neighborhood Ministries is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

Banquet: The event marking the centennial is planned Friday at Archangel Michael Greek Orthodox Church hall in Campbell with the theme, “Hope, Faith & Dream: Weaving the Threads of our Past, Present and Future.” The Rev. Robert Cassady, a regional minister for American Baptist Churches of Ohio and ministries board member, will be master of ceremonies. Participants will be Sylvia Holmes, former ministries program participant; Campbell Mayor Bill VanSuch; the Rev. Morris Lee, pastor Third Baptist Church in Youngstown and former board president; the Rev. Dan Yargo of Christ Community Church in Campbell; and Mark Samuel, executive director. Guest speaker will be the Rev. Lisa Harris, acting national coordinator of Children in Poverty Initiative/Christian Center Relations for American Baptist Churches, USA. She seeks to raise awareness and help congregations address issues related to the more than 14 million children in the United States and Puerto Rico living in poverty. She replaces the Rev. A. Roy Medley, general secretary of American Baptist Churches USA, who had been scheduled.

Budget: The 2013 budget is $748,149. Funding comes from individuals, businesses, churches, foundations, United Way and the government. Funds are spent on programs and services, buildings and facilities and administrative. There are four full-time and eight part-time staff helped by many volunteers.

Sites: They are Kirwan Homes Community Center, 75 Jackson St., Campbell, which started in the 1960s; Rockford Village Community Center, 1402 Dogwood Lane, Youngstown, on the city’s East Side, which opened in 1984; and West Side Community Center, 304 Matta Ave., Youngstown, which began in February 2009 in the former West Side Baptist Church.

Services at sites: Among services offered at the sites are after-school and summer programs for children, job training for teens, commodities distributions including Thanksgiving and Christmas baskets, health screenings, family support services, summer camp sponsorships, summer food program for children, clothing bank and work site mentoring.

For the community: Campbell Works for Children Collaborative that includes after-school and summer tutoring, summer food service program in an agreement with Ohio Department of Education that is offered at 19 sites, weekend food program, Victory Estates Community Center support including food and computer and VITA free tax preparation sites.

Alumni association: Anthony Madison, who as a youth was involved in after-school programs at Neighborhood Ministries at Kimmelbrook, is coordinating an association. He is connecting people through Facebook.

Information: Call 330-755-8696, or visit www.ohionm.org.

History: Neighborhood Ministries began a century ago when the Rev. Robert Hughes offered Bible studies for immigrants who had come to the Valley to work in the steel mills. Many did not speak English, so the ministry included English classes. The ministry has changed significantly since that early beginning. The ministry evolved over the years and became known as Bethel House I, Bethel House II, Neighborhood House, Campbell Christian Center, The Red Building and today as Neighborhood Ministries.

Reflection: Sylvia Holmes of Vienna participated in programs at Bethel House during the late 1940s and early 1950s. She recalls gardening, cooking, general homemaking and Girl Scouts. “It was about the mechanics of life,” she said. A secretary to the principal at Girard High School, Holmes has worked in the school system 45 years. She and her husband, Johnie, will mark their 58th wedding anniversary this month and she said the foundation she built at Bethel has served her throughout her life. “It taught me a good work ethnic and to give back to the community,” she said. She does so through Just Us, a volunteer group that helps at the Rescue Mission of Mahoning Valley, and coordinating a craft show next Saturday at First Baptist Church in Girard whose profits help the needy.