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Center renamed for longtime community activist
By Sean Barron
YOUNGSTOWN
Eugenia C. Atkinson has always preferred to remain in the background as she spent years spearheading numerous community- improvement efforts.
For one special occasion, however, she was very much in the foreground.
“I feel so blessed. I’ve always wanted to be the person who makes things happen for other people,” said Atkinson, who retired in 2007 after having worked nearly 20 years for the Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority.
Suffice it to say many other people watched something happen for Atkinson, as she was the guest of honor during a dedication ceremony Thursday in which the Arlington Heights Recreational Center was renamed the Eugenia Atkinson Recreational Center.
The move was largely the result of Atkinson’s leadership skills and community-outreach efforts.
More than 130 people that included community leaders, clergy, elected officials and numerous family members and friends attended the one-hour ceremony at the center, 903 Otis St., on the North Side, to honor Atkinson and rename the facility after her. Since the late 1980s, she served in several capacities at the YMHA, including human-resources director and executive director.
The recreation center opened in January 2009 and is a centerpiece of the $13.5 million Village at Arlington, a mixed-income revitalized neighborhood and housing community that features a park, rental units and owner-occupied townhouses.
It replaced Westlake Terrace, a series of 1940-vintage barracks-style apartments dedicated by Eleanor Roosevelt.
The recreational facility has a large gym, fitness center, meeting rooms and a kitchen for receptions and other events. It’s also used by a variety of YMHA partners such as the Community Initiative to Reduce Violence organization, Youngstown City Health District and Now! Youngstown, along with community organizations and clergy members, Mayor John A. McNally noted.
Atkinson also was pivotal in securing federal grant money to demolish Westlake, which, some have said, had a negative reputation, and replace it with something more conducive to neighborhood revitalization and unification, said Robert E. Bush Jr., director of the Mahoning County Department of Job and Family Services, who also worked with Atkinson at YMHA.
“It’s not often someone comes into your life … who’s moving a community forward,” Bush said. “She was adamant. She said, ‘We are going to build a community.’”
The Village at Arlington project also had more than 60 partners and was possible largely because of Hope VI, a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development program intended to revitalize and convert troubled public-housing projects into mixed-income developments, noted Carmelita Douglas, a former YMHA executive director.
“One of the jewels of that revitalization is where we are right now,” Douglas said of the recreational center.
Atkinson’s husband, Richard Atkinson, a former 3rd Ward councilman and Youngstown school-board member, added the major revitalization and neighborhood transformation project included public input.
Eugenia expressed gratitude in having the center named after her. “You can’t do this by yourself,” she added.
Making additional remarks were Bob Burke, Youngstown Parks and Recreation director; Jason T. Whitehead, the YMHA’s executive director and chief executive officer; the Rev. Kelvin E. Turner, former pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church; and a few Atkinson family members.