Bradfield Community Center executive director Chris Jackson announced Thursday the center would serve as the newest location in the Boys and Girls Clubs of Northeast Indiana network of facilities.
Craig Kelly | The Lima News
LIMA — For 86 years, the Bradfield Community Center worked to help the youth of the Lima community. On Thursday, the center announced a new partner in that effort, with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Northeast Indiana bringing its programs and services to the South Collett Street facility.
The Bradfield Center hosted a press conference Thursday to announce the new partnership, one that Boys and Girls Clubs of Northeast Indiana president and CEO Joe Jordan believes will reap substantial benefits for the entire community as the Lima club expects to serve 200 children between the ages of 6 and 18 every year.
“This moment is significant,” he said. “It’s extremely significant for kids in this community and your state because when you invest in kids, the return is monumental. When you get kids to understand their potential, they become part of this society. They can change this society.”
Boys and Girls Clubs is a national organization that provides a safe place for young people, especially the underprivileged, helping them connect with mentors and providing programs centered around academics, sports, the arts, workforce readiness and other areas to help young people reach their full potential.
For Bradfield Center executive director Chris Jackson, who is now also taking on that same position in this new Boys and Girls Club location, the aspirations for both organizations line up perfectly, and seeing what the organization has done in northeast Indiana has him excited for what could happen in Lima.
“If you ever get the chance to go to Fort Wayne, you have to visit Joe and his facility,” Jackson said. “A few years ago, they built a multimillion-dollar Boys and Girls Club facility, and two doors away from that is their tech center, which is state of the art.”
To aid the Bradfield Center in these efforts, Ohio Sen. Matt Huffman, R-Lima, announced at the press conference that an additional $480,000 was secured in the most recent state capital budget for the Bradfield Center.
“This is not a fly-by-night organization after 86 years,” he said. “This is part of the neighborhood I grew up in. We know that the dollars being spent at Bradfield Center are effective dollars.”
The club will also be working hand in hand with Lima schools, with the district arranging for each school bus line to include Bradfield as a stop for any students who want to take part in any after-school activities the facility is hosting.
“What I love a lot about this is that this offers an opportunity for high school kids, as well,” Lima superintendent Jill Ackerman said. “Not all high school kids do extracurricular activities, and a lot of high school kids need someplace to go after school, so this is another opportunity for older kids to get that support from the Boys and Girls Club, as well.”
City and county government representatives were also on hand to welcome this new initiative, with both Mayor Sharetta Smith and Allen County Commissioner Beth Seibert expressing optimism for what the Boys and Girls Clubs can bring to Lima’s youth.
“It’s bringing together two great organizations with a wonderful history, but it does form a future for these kids with great hope and great inspiration,” Seibert said.
Smith said, “One of the things that I really liked about hearing this here today is the African proverb that says, ‘It takes a village (to raise a child). It truly does take a village, and I think this community has shown that we embrace that, that we care about children.”
To learn more about programs through the Boys and Girls Clubs and other opportunities at the Bradfield Center, call 419-228-7766 or go to bit.ly/4cWZDix.
