Photo by Angela Jackson, for The Republic Lincoln-Central Neighborhood Family Center leaders Randy Allman and Diane Doup are shown outside the nonprofit’s office at 1039 Sycamore St. in downtown Columbus.
What the nonprofit Lincoln-Central Neighborhood Family Center has built during 30 years of helping Columbus’ most economically struggling residents began in a sense with a demolition.
An old, dilapidated abandoned house — one that had long been a drug and crime haven — at the Ninth Street Park property where a shelterhouse now stands, was torn down. Resident Jackie Combest, who lives a half block away, remembers that foundational moment, especially since neighbors had complained to local officials for years about the structure.
“I even got to take a whack at it myself with a sledgehammer,” said Combest, Lincoln-Central board president and a board member in some capacity since that beginning.
Lincoln-Central and its collaborators, ranging from other nonprofit community leaders to Cummins Inc. top executives, have taken a figurative sledgehammer to poverty and related challenges since the agency’s first event unfolded June 8, 1994. Leaders will celebrate that fight Saturday with a free celebration and cookout from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday fittingly at Ninth Street Park.
Randy Allman, Lincoln-Central’s executive director recruited from Cummins Inc. specifically for this work, summarized one of the center’s most significant impacts.
“More than anything, I feel like that we have given people a voice who previously felt like they had no voice,” Allman said.
Combest agreed, but took it a step further, since he personally has seen Allman and Doup help frightened and confused residents with everything from home and auto insurance complexities to getting needed counseling.
“Not only have they helped people who had no real voice, they’ve been huge in helping people in a lot of sticky situations where those people simply didn’t have the needed capability to help themselves,” Combest said.
Lincoln-Center’s work impacts about 2,100 households and an estimated 5,000 people in the downtown area. About 65 percent are considered low- to moderate income. A minimum of 60 percent of the agency’s board always is made up of actual residents of the area, making sure that those people retain the voice they’ve been given.
In one of the organization’s early outreaches, it fed more than 200 people a homemade Thanksgiving meal on Thanksgiving Day in 1994 at the Koala Center. Ever since, it has teamed with First Christian Church and other collaborators to do more of the same each Thanksgiving holiday in one of its more visible roles of outreach.
Through the years, the center’s estimated 30 programs have been nothing if not practical.
Other projects over time have included free basic auto maintenance, an Angels of Love Christmas gift program, parenting classes, extensive job training (including for high schoolers), a tool lending library (including lawn mowers), sometimes a free fan giveaway during summer’s hottest period, detailed home-buying preparation and help, a gardening program to benefit residents, and more.
Plus, the organization has been a main cog for several years amid United Way of Bartholomew County’s extra push to help more residents toward self-sufficiency.
United Way President Mark Stewart called the agency “a key partner” to lift families from poverty.
One of Lincoln-Central’s most visible projects is YES Cinema, home to $5 and $6-per-ticket first-run movies in a larger, current corporate film world of often $20 tickets. Theater profits recently returned to the $20,000-plus plateau in a year’s time, marking a return to robust financial health after perilous times amid the pandemic. That current profitability figure includes the fall, three-day YES Film Festival, which has earned residents’ upbeat reviews for diversity and inclusion, among other positive vibes.
That profitability is important for more than the neighborhood center’s program funding, center leaders say. Diane Doup, Lincoln-Central’s community outreach coordinator, points out that movie crowds in turn boost visits to nearby local restaurants and shops.
And Lincoln-Central’s flicks offer one perk for 21-and-older viewers that other venues don’t — beer and wine sales at the concession stand. Plus, the cinema serves as a great way to draw attention to Lincoln-Central’s other work.
“We do get people who need our services and take advantage of them because they’ve heard about them through the cinema, either directly or indirectly,” Doup said.
She added that Lincoln-Central’s programs also do more than target specific problems. She feels they can provide an overarching feeling of hope in dark times for some.
“I believe that one of the programming that we are fortunate to do with our partners helps to decrease stress inside a household,” Doup said. “And I think that helps those interpersonal relationships inside those four walls.”
She and Allman have encouraged residents to come to them with virtually any problem. For example, they’re currently helping a resident in a property line dispute. In many such cases, residents are without the wherewithal to cover such expenses.
“We want them to know that if we can’t help them,” Doup said, “then we will find someone out there who can.”
About the celebration
What: Lincoln-Central Neighborhood Center free 30th anniversary celebration with food, games, prizes, photos, and more.
When: 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday. A brief program will be at 1:30 p.m.
Where: Ninth Street Park, 1023 Ninth St. in Columbus
Information: Facebook page for Lincoln-Central Neighborhood Family Center
