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Columbus, OH (2013)

Central Ohio Youth for Christ

Financing for a non-profit organization that provides faith-based and faith-neutral programs and activities to achieve holistic improvements in the lives of youths and families in Central Ohio.

Investment

  • NMTC Amount: $6,790,000
  • Total Project Cost: $7,477,049

IMPACT

  • 26 FTE jobs
  • 18 construction jobs
  • Serving over 1,100 teens annually
  • 38,000 sq. ft. of real estate

Investor

Project Description

Central Ohio Youth for Christ (COYFC) is a non-profit organization that provides faith-based and faith-neutral programs and activities to achieve holistic improvements in the lives of youths and families in Central Ohio. COYFC focuses on low-income and at-risk 11-19 year old teens facing a variety of challenges including poverty, domestic and sex abuse, emotional trauma, and juvenile detention.

Finance Fund provided $7,000,000 of federal NMTC allocation and $2,564,103 of Ohio NMTC allocation to redevelop an approximately 38,000 sq. ft. vacant elementary school and 14,000 sq. ft. annex building into COYFC’s new City Life Center in the west Franklinton neighborhood of Columbus, a highly economically distressed area with a poverty rate of 29.9%, a median family income equal to 34.1% of the applicable area median family income, and an employment rate of 13.3%.

The City Life Center enables COYFC to provide its services, including an after-school recreation program, to at-risk youth in a neighborhood marked by the highest number of teen misdemeanors and third highest number of teen felony arrests in Franklin County.

Among the neighborhood’s 15-18 year olds, only 48% are in school or have a job; 9% are directly impacted by teen pregnancy; and 40% abuse drugs or alcohol. It is estimated that only 20% of students within the neighborhood graduate high school. COYFC used part of the City Life Center to create spaces where teens can learn skills that lead to careers.

After-school and weekend programs include classes and one-on-one time with caring adults in organized activities including the recording arts, automotive mechanics, textiles and ceramics. COYFC has seen tremendous changes in teens who feel loved and accepted for who they are, in a safe learning environment.

MAP

Address: 40 North Chicago Avenue, Columbus, OH 43222

Census Tract: 39049004300

Voices from the Community

The NMTC made our urban ministry center possible in a location in central Ohio that was unfinanceable according to several financing experts. This, in spite of significant down payment funds available. The result has been a rehabilitated building that has become the epicenter of community renovation and a reversal of major blight in the neighborhood. It has also become home to a youth serving ministry that supports 300-400 youth each year with programming. This is in addition to supporting a charter school providing educational services to 150-200 students each year. The effect of this investment in the lives of young people in this urban neighborhood is hard to estimate in hard dollars, but has been far beyond what was put into it.

-Scott Arnold, Executive Director, Central Ohio Youth For Christ, Columbus, Ohio

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