Life & Work with Dwight Young of Ohio

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dwight Young.

Hi Dwight, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
BLOC started with me, a youth pastor, and my wife Stephanie offering after school activities, character-building motivational events and mentoring at west side middle and high schools in the late 1990’s. The emphasis was serving students who’d ‘fallen between the cracks.’ These students weren’t involved in other positive after school pursuits, struggled with school, lacked strong role models and were at high risk of dropout or involvement in juvenile crime. BLOC began offering alternatives to help resist boredom-related risky behavior that could lead to juvenile delinquency by offering meaningful relationships with safe adults and activities like crafts, recreational sports, games and academic support. Before long, we added family support services and counseling, being an extra liaison with probation for court-involved youth and assisting them in having opportunities to meet their probation requirements.

In 2004 BLOC expanded programs into Price Hill due to the depth of needs that were underserved or unserved. Our model for success includes staff trained in urban culture and committed to living where they serve, to be personally invested and also be available at times of crisis or high need.

In recent years, BLOC has responded to more under-met needs by creating addiction recovery programs and supports for women and men coming out of incarceration. We have also built small businesses in Price Hill to train these hard-to-employ teens and adults. BLOC’s programs are engaging avenues that enrich, educate and strengthen urban students and adults.

BLOC serves 3,000 or more children, teens and adults every month with these no-cost programs and services.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
As part of our mission, BLOC staff and families live in the urban neighborhoods where we work. This means we want to be a part of solutions to help make Price Hill — its children, teens, adults — safer, healthier and more resilient. Our staff is trained in urban culture, trauma care and the impact of racial, gender and economic inequities. Living in the neighborhood can be challenging when there are shootings outside of your home, overdoses and neighbors dying. However, we find it essential to live where we serve in order to fully understand the needs of the community.

It’s also challenging to help people to understand there are missional needs in the cities of America, not just overseas. We are in a spiritual battle every day, right here at home, to help bring hope and faith to the people in our community.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
One of the biggest things that sets BLOC apart is that our staff live where we serve. We offer over 20 no-cost programs to the community for people of all ages. Those include:

Neighborhood HUB– after school academic help, snacks and mentoring
EPOH House – residential teen program
Arts & Sports Centers – ranges from recreational activities to more intensive 1-to-1 training
Girls Wanted– teen character-development group & mentoring
Youth Empowerment group for Latino students – academic help, snacks, enrichment, mentoring
Junior Chef class – includes healthy snack or meal that students help prepare
Teaching Kitchen – paid jobs training for older youth & adults
Day shelter for homeless women – practical help & health resources
Redeemed Houses– residential women’s addiction recovery program
Jail visitation
Jobs training for women at BLOC Coffee or Redeemed Letterpress
English as Second Language classes – all ages, including adults
Immigrant Welcome Center – jobs placement, translation & acculturation support for older teens and adults
Emergency food pantry
Neighborhood & holiday events open to all
Horses on the Hill – equine-assisted activities/therapy & Farm-to-Table urban garden
Side by Side Ministries – student & family support including literacy and practical support for at-risk in Colerain Township/Finneytown area.

How do you define success?
Any time we build relationships with our neighbors, that is success. We are sewing the seeds of faith with those people. The “O” in BLOC stands for one-to-one. Even if we are helping just one person get out of poverty, off of drugs, change their life for the better or break unhealthy habits, we consider that to be a success.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.onebloc.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bloc_ministries/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blocministries