YWCA Dayton announces newest location in Huber Heights

A nearly 20-acre space in Huber Heights is now the newest program location for YWCA Dayton, the oldest multicultural social services organization serving women and girls in the Miami Valley. The 151-year-old nonprofit currently operates six locations across Montgomery and Preble counties.The YWCA Dayton Huber Heights Campus, located at 7650 Timbercrest Dr., was built in 1980 as the Montgomery County Developmental Center, which closed in 2018. The property consists of 11 buildings on 19.445 acres, including: seven residential units; a 20,000-square-foot administration building with community meeting space; and green space with a gazebo, picnic shelter, and trail.“This was an incredible opportunity,” said Shannon Isom, president and CEO. “We are not out to grow for the sake of growth; based on our history, based on our relationships, based on the work we’ve done for more than a century, we’ve been presented with an opportunity to live out our mission and serve the needs of our community, in collaboration, differently than we ever have before.“There are very few agencies that get presented with the ability to create, to be innovative, to build, to develop, in partnership with others; YWCA Dayton is in a place, and a season, to embrace that. It’s taken us 150 years to get here, and we’re excited and ready to be agile in meeting the Miami Valley’s needs for the next 150 years.”The campus will open in phases, with initial use focused on administrative functions, youth programming, and community rentals, including long-term small business leases.“Our first priority is to get this right. There are very few organizations that are afforded the opportunity to think about their mission in a way that feeds community,” Isom said. “We have built a task force of local community leaders and stakeholders, from funding to strategic planning to operations, and the support we’ve received from the Huber Heights community is palpable.”That includes the property’s first onsite service project – a reflection courtyard and friendship fire ring – installed in July 2020 by Huber Heights youth Micah and Sarai Combs as their Eagle Scout capstone. Sarai is a member of the first class of female Eagle Scouts in the Miami Valley; the siblings’ project, with an in-kind value of more than $6,000, took 26 volunteers a total of more than 650 person hours to complete.YWCA Dayton held an outdoor ribbon cutting on Saturday, April 24, to formally open the Huber Heights Campus and give special recognition for the Combs’ Eagle Scout project in honor of National Volunteer Week.