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SHELBY – Opening a community facility centered around children and the local school system has always been in the heart of Core Community Church Lead Pastor Ben Carver.
Conversations began nearly eight years ago with Shelby City Schools administrators to find a solution for a community need which they felt they couldn’t do anything about, Carver said.
Meeting a need of the community
The answer he received then has remained at the forefront to this day; after-school programming.
“We live in a community in which the drug epidemic continues to rise and single-parent households are a commonality,” he said.
“Yet, here we are sending 6- to 8-year-olds into parts of our city by themselves or to a home where there’s no adult presence.”
With this topic weighing on his mind, Carver said the idea was born for a Shelby Dream Center, a volunteer-driven organization which works toward meeting the needs of the local schools.
Property purchased for Shelby Dream Center
In 2021, Shelby City Schools sold former elementary school buildings Auburn and Dowds to Core Community Church during a public auction.
The district opened a new pre-K to 8th grade facility earlier this year.
Major interior and exterior renovations are near completion at the 70-year-old building, including new paint, classroom upgrades, and new carpet.
In September 2022, Carver told Richland Source the church planned to invest more than $1.5 million in renovations between the two former school buildings.
He said it was a ridiculously big risk for his congregation to launch a community center of this proportion.
“Seven or eight years ago, the answer (possibility) was obviously no,” he said. “But, as we’ve continued to grow and as this opportunity came up, we decided to jump for it.”
Once renovations reach completion, Carver said his goal is to host an open house for the community and for the neighborhood surrounding the facility.
‘Just want to be a great neighbor’
One of the community center’s initial launch projects was the Adopt-a-Block program, designed to assist the needs of around 250-300 households situated near the facility.
The neighborhood project has hosted Christmas parties, leaf raking and landscaping days, a back-to-school bash, and other community bonding events.
“We just want to be a great neighbor,” Carver said. “We don’t want anything from you, we just want something for you and we want you to know that we’re here to stay.”
While the former elementary school building is owned by Core Community Church, Carver said the Shelby Dream Center stands alone as a separate 501(c)(3) organization.
Carver said this choice was made purposefully because he understands sometimes, a church can be intimidating to a community or come with some negative connotations.
“We wanted to open a facility and have an organization that really could just communicate the message,” he said. “We are for our city.”
Shelby Dream Center wants to offer a ‘hand-up’
Organizational goals include providing environments and programming that offer community members a hand-up and not just a handout, Carver said.
“It’s really this step of faith and we just want to stand in the gap for our city,” he said. “We’re kind of pushing our chips to the middle and if it fails, at least we’ve gone down trying.”
Furthermore, Carver said he hopes to spark partnerships with like-minded organizations who could benefit from the space available at the Dream Center.
LifeWise Academy, a free program that provides Bible education for public school students during school hours, is currently offered at the community center.
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Additionally, he said several youth basketball teams in the community have used the facility’s gym space for practices this year.
“LifeWise is just one opportunity for outside collaboration that we’ve really launched out of that facility (Shelby Dream Center),” Carver said. “We would love for that to continue to grow.”
Carver said encouraging conversations have been shared with OhioHealth, who’s Shelby campus is right across the street from the Dream Center.
“Being next door neighbors to each other, we’ve talked about how our partnership could grow,” he said. “We’re always open to finding more opportunities to be able to use our facility, to serve our city.”
Collaboration is the key to growth
Reinventing the wheel is not the mission Carver has in mind.
Instead, he said he recognizes there are organizations already doing similar things, but simply may not have the space for programs to reach their full potential.
“We don’t need any credit whatsoever,” he said. “We just want to serve our city and use the space we’ve got to make their program even better.”
Carver said decision making at the Shelby Dream Center is currently 100 percent board driven and includes no paid staff members.
“Everything is driven and divvied out to our board members to take some responsibility and ownership to do those day-to-day tasks,” he said.
How to get involved with the Shelby Dream Center
The organization, focused on collaboration and community, welcomes any individuals or community members interested in becoming involved.
“That’s one of the things that as we continue to grow and develop, will be a major need of ours moving forward,” Carver said.
“We want to do everything we can to build trust amongst organizations and people within our community,” he said. “We just want what’s best for our city and we need zero credit out of this.”
Carver said he wants people to know the organization’s efforts will be a gradual process, designed to fit the ever-changing needs of the community.
“We know that those needs can change pretty frequently,” he said. “We’re kind of taking it one program, one opportunity, and one year at a time.”
For those wishing to learn more about the Shelby Dream Center or how to become involved, further details can be found on the organization’s website or Facebook page.
