The state bill includes $3 million for the Miami Chapel Inspire Zone Youth Workforce Development Center project, which aims to create a space for high schoolers to learn new career skills and prepare for their futures.
The planned youth center, which will be located in the Miami Chapel neighborhood in western Dayton, will focus on five disciplines: health sciences, construction, cosmetology, robotics and career services.
Each topic will have its own dedicated space in the building where young people can learn more about that discipline at no cost, Allen said.
The facility will serve between 1,000 to 1,200 teens annually. The need for career readiness services continues to persist, according to Allen.
“We have so many opportunities here,” Allen said. “But barriers exist for reaching those opportunities.”
Allen said that the Club’s hopes for the future center is to eliminate generational poverty by preparing young people to plan for their adulthood and develop skills needed for their next steps in life.
This could be in the form of continuing their education at a college or trade school, enlisting in the military or entering into gainful employment, Allen said.
“There’s a lot of need,” said Allen. “And we have a mission: to enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens.”
The Club is conducting a feasibility study for the youth center, which will help Club leaders identify an overall cost for the project and other needs for the facility.
The Club hopes to have renderings of the space — which will be imagined with the help of students served by the Clubs — later this fall, and ground could be broken on the project next year.
Other Montgomery County projects that have proposed funding from the Ohio General Assembly include $2 million to restore the historic Wright Brothers factory in Dayton and another $1.5 million for development at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
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