Family Center growing, changing to meet families’ needs

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By Larry Michaels Special to The Press

For 120 years, the East Toledo Family Center has served the people of East Toledo.
It began in 1901 as the Neighbor Association, but soon became fondly known in the community as the “Neighborhood House.” Perhaps the oldest such community organization in this area, it provided aid to the many immigrant families that arrived in the early 1900s. It survived the dark years of the Depression in the 1930s – when its services were needed all the more – and it continued to grow during the post-World War II boom years until a new building was needed in the early 1970s.
Today, the Family Center serves more people and provides more programs than at any other time in its long history.

Beginnings (1901-1917)
On Aug. 4, 1901, Canadian-born Rev. H. W. Hoover, former pastor of Memorial Baptist Church, held a tent meeting on factory grounds owned by D.J. Nysewander at East Broadway and the New York Central Railroad tracks in East Toledo.
He was a little over 40 when he began his mission work in East Toledo, which lasted for several days and then was expanded into “settlement work” to help the many new immigrants arriving here.
Minutes from the organizational meeting survive in the records of the East Toledo Family Center. A list also survives of those who contributed toward the “interest on loan, sidewalks, hymn books, lights and piano tuning” for this first Industrial Heights Mission. Contributors included such well-known East Toledo names as Metzger, Rideout, Tracy and Hirzel.
By the summer of 1902, property was obtained on Vinal Street and adjoining lots were soon added through the generosity of Alexander Black, George Metzger, Isaac Gerson and Nysewander.
Rev. Hoover and his wife, Nellie Titus Hoover, moved into a large shed on the grounds until more permanent housing – which led to the formation of the Neighborhood House – could be established.
The land on Vinal Street near East Broadway, originally a neglected dump, was quickly improved. Dirt from the streets was used as fill, grass was sown and donations of flowers from East Toledo florists and shrubs from Monroe Nurseries soon brightened the place.
The Ohio Neighborhood Institute, commonly called the Neighborhood House, was incorporated and the property at 1019 and 1027 Vinal St. developed rapidly. M.J. Riggs, superintendent of the American Bridge Company operations in East Toledo, helped purchase playground equipment, along with fencing, ornamental gates and posts.
A Depression in 1908 led to what foreign families called the “slim winter.” When no other charities were available to help the many families who were out of work, Mrs. Hoover and East Side businesses stepped in to provide food and aid through the Neighborhood House.
During the years of World War I, there was a need for classes in English for both children and adults, as more and more immigrants came to work factories in the Toledo area. Before Oakdale School opened, school classes were held at the Neighborhood House for small children of various grades.
By 1916, the Neighborhood House had a large playground that was believed to be the first in Toledo. It featured a merry-go-round, basket swing, May pole and other play equipment. There was also an enormous sandbox that could hold dozens of children at one time.
A “Sunshine House” donated by Dorothy Kimball was used to help children learn how to tend house. Tea parties were also held to teach the children proper manners when entertaining. And, of course, there were sports of all kinds, including basketball, baseball – even boxing matches.
Attendance records from 1916 show just how important the work of the Neighborhood House was to the community. The Vinal Street playground was used by 5,000 children that year. More than 3,480 attended American citizenship classes, 2,385 came to other informational lectures and 2,695 participated in a “School of Conduct.”
A satellite ministry of the Neighborhood House was formed. The Ironville neighborhood settlement, called Lincoln Place, served 7,860 participants during 1916. For the year, 28,766 people were touched through the activities of this East Side ministry.

Good times and bad (1917-46)
The importance of the Neighborhood House to the community is reflected by the number of companies and individuals who contributed to its support. Records from 1917 show hundreds of donors, including the names of some of Toledo’s most prominent citizens: Ernest Tiedtke, Thomas DeVilbiss, Edward Ford, General Isaac R. Sherwood, Henry Walbridge, the Detwiler and LaSalle families, along with such East Side names as Winchester, Hoeflinger, Eggleston, Gardner and Ticket. Edward Drummond Libbey was also an important early benefactor.
Immigrants continued to flood into America during the years immediately following World War I. Rev. Hoover and Mark Winchester led the efforts of the Americanization movement to help these new arrivals adjust to life in this country.
As the need increased, the Neighborhood House continued to grow. By 1927, there were three buildings on the Vinal Street property. The original Neighborhood House was more than doubled in size with the addition of a large auditorium, classroom and refectory.
The playground continued to be enlarged with the help of donated equipment and financial support. There was a separate house on the Neighborhood House property where Rev. Hoover and his family resided.
Over the years, the Neighborhood House had many musical bands – usually with a large drum that bore the name of the Neighborhood House.
Mayor William Jackson, an East Side resident, supported the Neighborhood House and was a friend of Rev. Hoover.
However, as the 1930s began, the Great Depression was beginning to take its toll on the working-class families of East Toledo. To make matters worse, Rev. Hoover, the founder of the Neighborhood House, died in 1932 at the age of 72.
At this point, the Neighborhood House was probably needed all the more and many were there to provide help to those in need.
A 1930 article by Isabel Toppin, of the East Side Sun family, notes that “now, many are losing the houses they tried hard to maintain.
“The stream of little wagons and push carts headed for the city’s dole measures the Depression into which we have fallen,” she wrote. “In the midst of general unhappiness, the Neighborhood House has striven to relieve the drab hopelessness of the situation.”
In these hard times, the Neighborhood House was often a last resort for people, so that’s when it became more important than ever. People would come to borrow a chair for a funeral. They would borrow a table for a wedding or the large coffee pot for a family party. Volunteers would bring in clothing. A baker would send in surplus stock.
“Mothers accomplished wonders with a yard of goods and a button,” Neighborhood House records show.
The facility became a clearinghouse for the needs of the community and the human spirit would not be extinguished by hard times.
By the 1940s, as economic times began to improve in the aftermath of World War II, the Neighborhood House continued to provide a place for people of all ages and ethnic backgrounds to gather and become better Americans.

The Densmore years (1946-1971)
As World War II ended and soldiers came home, Americans wanted to get back to their families and a normal way of life. It was a time of growth, and a time of strong family and community feelings. Warren Densmore, who was nominated to become the director of the Neighborhood House on June 28, 1946, was the right person to lead the agency during those busy years of post-war growth.
Under Densmore’s leadership, along with Vince Renda, Helen Corwin and others, more and more programs were offered to the people of East Toledo. Dances were held, scouting troops formed, a new swimming pool was built nearby at Navarre Park in 1949, playground activities increased and sports teams of all kinds were formed.
In addition, children from the Neighborhood House went camping at Camp Miakonda, participated in Christmas parades and were active in scouting programs.
An article written in 1960 emphasized the Neighborhood House’s “vital role” in the community to “help people help themselves.” Some of the offerings available at the facility then included dances, crafts, basketball, scouting, preschool, Mother’s Clubs, school lunch programs and a chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic.
Membership in 1960 was 436, with three quarters of those youths between the ages of 4 and 18.
During the 1960s, the Neighborhood House was nicknamed “The Living Room” because of its informal and welcoming atmosphere. The facility held numerous special events or activities over the years, including “Ethnic Choir” in 1964, preparation of community Easter baskets in 1966 and a trip to the circus in 1968.
As the activities and participants at the Neighborhood House kept growing during the 1950s and 1960s, the facility began bursting at the seams. Even with all the improvements made to the Vinal Street properties in the years since the first tent mission, it became apparent that a larger facility would soon be needed.
And along with a new facility would come a new identity.

1971 to 2000
In anticipation of future growth, three to five acres of Navarre Park were requested in 1966 for a proposed new facility. Mayor Potter supported the proposal, and by the following summer, an agreement was reached with the city.
Under the agreement, a new building would be built that the city would own. The city recreation department would provide staff, equipment and supplies.
Toledo architect Horace Wachter prepared the plans for the new building. A U.S. Housing and Urban Development grant was applied for to help pay for the building, which by now had increased in cost from $360,000, to $450,000 to $602,000 before it was finished June 24, 1971.
A formal dedication ceremony was held Sept. 18, 1971, with more than 500 people in attendance. The new building was named the East Toledo Family Center.
The center began holding annual meetings in January 1973. Rev. Philip Lewis, of Eastminster Presbyterian Church, was given the center’s first Community Service Award.
At that meeting, it was reported that the center would open 70 hours a week. Twenty-two groups met in the building, including 145 preschool children, 88 participants in dancing classes and dozens of athletic teams using the new, large gymnasium.
All told, the total membership had reached nearly 1,700.
By the end of 1980, however, the City of Toledo was in financial crisis. The East Toledo Family Center faced the possibility of closing.
The community rallied around the center, and financial support came. The center was able to continue its ministry.
A 35th anniversary appreciation dinner was held in May 1981 for Densmore. Under his long tenure, the Neighborhood House-turned-Family Center experienced continued growth and expansion.
The conversion of the Navarre shelterhouse as the East Toledo Senior Center in the mid-1980s was a major step. There were numerous activities and programs held at the center, including day camp, Halloween parties and soccer banquets.
Another financial crisis developed in the late 1980s. The United Way announced Feb. 2, 1989, that it was withholding $50,000 in funding from the Family Center because of financial management problems that the center had failed to resolve.
The board of directors took immediate action and hired Tim Yenrick, who was then in his 20s, as the new director.
Yenrick began a quick turnaround of the center. The preschool was soon going strong and there were before- and after-school programs for elementary students, including tutoring and homework programs.
But the center was not all work and no play. Monthly teen nights, summer day camp and expanded soccer, softball, basketball and other athletic opportunities provided participants a chance to have fun.
The center began the last decade before the turn of the century by holding its first William Densmore Scholarship Dinner on April 26, 1990. The dinner became an annual tradition.
There were three full-time and nine part-time staff members in 1990. In addition, there were 23 permanent volunteers, and an active board of directors.

2001 to 2017
At the turn of this century, expansion into the various neighborhoods within East Toledo was a focus for the agency.
Satellite offices were opened in Weiler Homes and Birmingham, and the teen drop-in program was housed at St. Mark Lutheran Church.
The Family Center’s childcare program was the first school-aged program in Northwest Ohio to be accredited by the National School-Aged Care Alliance. The center also created the Heffner Early Childhood Center in the former Heffner School and moved all its programs that served young children into this building.
In 2002, the Family Center building was rededicated and named the Warren Densmore Building to honor the Family Center’s prior director.
After 15 years of service and to close the year 2003, Tim Yenrick left the East Toledo Family Center. In 2004, the board of trustees hired Kim Partin to become the center’s new director. Partin had been the Family Resource Director for the agency for a number of years and the board saw her compassion and love for East Toledo and knew the center would continue to thrive under her direction.
Partin continued her predecessors’ commitment to collaboration by bringing in Phoenix Academy, Heartbeat, the Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) and the Women, Infants and Children (WIC). Grant funding was secured to purchase 10 vehicles, including two school activity buses. The Help Me Grow Program expanded from four to 10 service coordinators.
An annual Neighborhood House Reunion was started to bring together those who attend the Neighborhood House as children to relive old memories.
In addition, $70,000 in donations and grants was raised to renovate the kitchen at the Senior Center.

2017 to present
In early 2017, Partin left the center to pursue a career with the ProMedica Health System. Roger Dodsworth was named interim during the search for a new director to continue the mission and vision of the center moving forward.
At the end of July, Jodi Gross was named the new director of the East Toledo Family Center. Gross’s love, passion and knowledge of the center and the East Toledo community will continue the vision of the center being a valuable partner in an empowered community.
Gross has lived, worked and volunteered for more than 30 years in the East Toledo community. She began her involvement with the center in 1992 when her husband was a coach of various sports. She was recruited by Bob Clark to become a Family Center board member, and she has been involved in many aspects, including being an employee.
Before becoming the director, Gross was the center’s community builder, organizing residents and other stakeholders to get involved in the center. She worked closely with resident volunteers to implement the “One Voice for East Toledo Initiative” to create a sustainable and livable community for the next generation. The One Voice volunteers received the 2016 Northwest Ohio Volunteer Ohio award through ServeOhio for their efforts in making changes in the East Toledo neighborhood.
Gross will continue to champion for the community through the Family Center by providing the services and programs that families need. The center’s responsibility is to educate, empower and engage all stakeholders in being their own change.
In early 2018, Dodsworth, who was serving as the center’s assistant director, retired with 31 years of service. Staci Cook was chosen as the new assistant director based on her knowledge of the center and its service programs. But after a 13-year career with the East Toledo Family Center, Cook left this year to pursue a career opportunity with the YMCA.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Family Center closed to the general public on March 17, 2020.
“We sent our employees home and said we will work through this…and we did,” Gross said. Thanks to a strong technology infrastructure, the center was able to provide remote programming and services.
On Aug. 4, 2021, the East Toledo Family Center officially marked 120 years of service.
“Although we look different than we did all those years ago,” Gross said, “our mission is clear and still the same – ‘Strengthening and serving our community one life at a time.’”
Although still dealing with COVID, Gross said she believes the center is “stronger for it” and continues to serve families “from babies to seniors” through programs such as home visiting, preschool/Head Start, youth enrichment/athletics, community detention, and other services.
“During the rest of 2021, we will celebrate our 120th anniversary,” Gross said. “The East Toledo Family Center will continue to be that one-stop shop for our families who know that the center will help them be their very best.”
East Toledo Family Center Director Jodi Gross contributed to this article.

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