Central Y downtown begins project to add living space to its upper floors
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YOUNGSTOWN -- A project funded by a state grant is underway downtown, and its completion will mean new opportunities for some of the county's most vulnerable and underserved residents.
In May, the YMCA of Youngstown received a $1 million brownfield remediation grant from the Ohio Department of Development. It was among 160 projects -- including two in Warren, totaling more than $935,000 -- to receive funding through the department's Ohio Brownfield Remediation Program. A total of $61 million in grants was announced.
Central YMCA Executive Director D'Aundray "Dre" Brown said the asbestos abatement work on the top three floors of the building and in the basement got underway a few weeks ago. The grant covers the cost of that abatement.
The remediation will make way for the YMCA to repurpose those floors to serve young adults who have aged out of the foster care system.
"We're taking baby steps, and the grant for remediation is the first step," said YMCA President and CEO Beth Scheller. "We're excited about the prospect of bringing those floors back. They served that purpose until they closed in the 1980s. We're trying to make the Y sustainable and solve a community need, and go back to our roots of helping young adults find their place in life. Young adults that have maybe had a hard road."
Scheller said the YMCA is looking for community partners interested in working with them to make the program a success.
Mahoning County Grants Management Director Anna DeAscentis said the project fills a gap for which the county has long been trying to find solutions.
"I think it's great that we finally have a local agency that's going to address the needs of this population, because over the years there haven't been resources allotted to serve them," she said. "It's something that we've talked about for more than 20 years, since I've been here. But there is never anywhere to get the funds, no way to extend funds."
Mahoning County Children's Services Executive Director Richard Tvaroch said every year at least a handful of young adults leave foster care with no housing support, and youth in many surrounding counties face the same problem. .
"They face the same challenges of any child turning 18, but without significant family support, without someone to help them navigate the complexity of the job market and just being a young adult," Tvaroch said. "Our agency does its best, with our independent living program, but despite our efforts, we cannot meet all those needs."
Brown explained the plans at Thursday's Mahoning County commissioners meeting, which the YMCA hosted. Brown thanked the board, which had the option to select from three projects suggested by the Mahoning County Land Bank.
In addition to housing for transitional youth, the central YMCA will add a youth development center to help those it serves with long-term workforce readiness.
"We have such a big building, and we wanted to get back to what the YMCA's mission is, and we have all that wasted space," he said. "So we asked: how do we go back to our roots but cater to a current need the community has, and that is to serve kids aging out of foster care. They can come to the Y for healthy living, activities and the spiritual aspect too, but it also will provide an employment opportunity as well."
Brown said the commissioners' support -- the board provided a $10,000 match to the remediation grant, among countless additional dollars the county has awarded the YMCA in recent years -- helps to make its resources, like summer programs, affordable for underprivileged youth.
He said the YMCA's upper floors have well over 100 residential units. Many of those, once remediated for toxins like asbestos, will be refurbished as living spaces. Other portions will be converted to office space, communal living space, meeting rooms, and educational and workforce development programming space.
The basement and some lower floor space will be adapted to serve the other youth development and summer camp programs.
Brown said those programs are already at the capacity that the YMCA can provide service for with its existing space. The renovations will allow it to expand programs to serve more local youth.
Brown said the programs already in place, as well as the new services the YMCA will provide, are especially meaningful to him because of his personal relationship to the association. Brown practically grew up at the Y.
"We didn't necessarily have the funds for me to be a member, so what I would do, I snuck into this very YMCA," he said at Thursday's meeting.
His parents both were athletes, who ultimately played sports at Youngstown State University, and encouraged Brown's affinity for basketball from the age of 4. To get more experience, he began sneaking into the YMCA at about 5.
"As long as I can remember, I played in youth BB leagues," said Brown, now 37.
Through his time at the Y and in other leagues, Brown's skills took him far. His parents would challenge him to play against kids at least one or two grades above him. In fifth grade, he began playing AAU basketball, and in eighth grade it got even more serious when he joined the Shooting Stars, a team started by LeBron James and coached by Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary Coach Drew Joyce.
He played high school basketball for Ursuline, earned a scholarship to Cleveland State University, was drafted by the Cavs, and played for their G-League team, the Canton Charge.
When his mom died, Brown found himself estranged from the game.
"I wasn't sure I wanted to play, It was hard to be away from family," he said. "I started wondering: What is life after basketball and how can I still be involved?"
He and his father, a longtime coach in Northeast Ohio, formed the Dre Day Foundation.
The idea was to provide high-caliber basketball camps, like kids normally would expect to find in big cities, in Youngstown. They brought in some of their coaching and player colleagues to help teach kids top-notch skills.
Brown said he remembers a camp at Liberty High School.
"We had about 30 kids show up, and I think 20 of those were my cousins," he said.
But from that camp, his love and passion for the game returned, and teaching it became his new purpose.
The next camp brought in 80 to 100 kids.
Brown's career took another turn when former YMCA CEO Tom Gacse brought his grandson to one of the camps..
"He asked me to bring it to the YMCA. and so I started doing training clinics, basically in exchange for using the facilities," Brown said.
From there, he took over as sports and recreation director when the job opened up. That provided him with the chance to take over as director in 2023.
When Brown shared some of his story with commissioners Thursday, Commissioner Geno DiFabio praised Brown's tenacity and drive.
"Your story, how you snuck in...and look where you're at. That's the American dream," he said.
DiFabio expressed appreciation for the YMCA, the opportunities it provides to the county's youth and Brown's efforts to continue expanding the programming.
Brown said he is only doing what he learned from his own experience.
"That's what it's about, paying it forward. It took a village to raise me and give me experience and exposure. And that's what the Y is all about and that's what we're trying to create."