Or a boat.
“I love a challenge,” he said.
As new site manager at the Dream Center, Harris must regain the public’s trust, solicit donations, write grants, expand programs, and get the soup kitchen on Yankee Road back in the black, financially.
But, first, he needs to pay the phone bill. The Dream Center has a phone number, now it just needs its phone service reconnected.
“We can’t operate like this,” Harris said picking up the phone in his office and pretending to listen for a dial tone.
The phone, of course, isn’t the only issue at the Dream Center, founded by Louella Thompson more than 20 years ago. Since Thompson’s death, the center has had numerous managers.
Through most of that leadership, money, or lack thereof, has been the major roadblock. And when the center started reducing its hours and programs, individuals and companies steered their donations in different directions.
Harris, a Middletown native, called this “a struggling phase” at the center, but instead of dwelling on the past, he’s looking forward to the future.
“We’re in a ‘keep going’ mode,” he said. “We’re at ground level, and the way I look at it, we only have one way to go and that’s up.”
Harris, 43, a 1985 Middletown High School and 1996 Central State University graduate who also served in the U.S. Marines, said he’s hoping a new after-school tutoring program will build a foundation at the Dream Center.
Harris has gone door-to-door to recruit students, and he has hired nine teachers to operate the program. The center also will provide transportation for the students.
The program, he hopes, will be operational by Nov. 29. It will run Monday through Thursday, and through its reimbursements from the Student Achievement Center will provide much-needed revenue.
One day, Harris hopes, the center returns to its original role as “a cornerstone in the community.”
’The right man for the job'
For a man who attended college in Wilberforce, taught school in Cincinnati and Baltimore, and served his country in the Marines during Desert Storm, Joseph Harris is happiest at home.
He has returned to where his roots were planted.
Harris, a 1985 Middletown High School graduate, recently was named site manager at the Dream Center, a soup kitchen on Yankee Road that was founded by the late Louella Thompson in 1997.
Since Thompson passed away in 2005, the Dream Center has experienced a historical nightmare. The director’s office has been a revolving door, and, because of that instability and lack of accountability, the public has lost its trust, Harris said.
That has led to the utilities being shut off several times, programs being reduced, hours being cut.
So when the center sought yet another director, only Harris volunteered. It’s hard to find a captain if the ship is sinking, or at least taking on water.
“He was willing to step up when nobody else wanted to,” said Ceal Thompson, a member of the Dream Center board. “He wanted to give back to his community. He was the right man for the job.”
After high school, Harris, 43, served in the Marines — he still calls people “sir” — then earned his bachelor’s degree in social work from Central State University in 1996. He worked in Baltimore and Cincinnati, then came home looking to make an impact here.
Then the Dream Center position opened.
This summer, he worked closely with the children at the Middletown Community Center, where Thompson is director. She was impressed by the enthusiasm Harris brought to the center. He combined activities and academics and made learning fun.
Now he hopes to rebuild the Dream Center, which he called the “cornerstone of the community,” one child at a time. The center will soon offer an after-school tutoring program that, because it’s independently funded, will provide much-needed revenue for the financially strapped soup kitchen.
He said it’s time to “raise the center to the stature it’s supposed to be.”
Harris was asked what Louella Thompson must be thinking about the center she dedicated her life to opening and operating.
“I’m sure she’s on the edge of her bed, unsure of the future of the center,” Harris said, sitting on the edge of his chair in his Dream Center office. “Hopefully, she sees a sparkle, a light beam of hope.”
Right then, one of Harris’ three grandchildren, Chancellor, 3, who was sitting in the office, started to interrupt the conversation.
“What did I tell you about that?” Harris asked.
“Sorry,” his grandson said.
He’s still teaching.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2842 or rmccrabb@coxohio.com.
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