The Promise of the Hope Zone, OMEGA CDC 

As Rachel Ward takes over the reins as president of Omega Community Corporation (Omega CDC) this year, she aims to deepen the work in Northwest Dayton. Under her helm, Omega CDC provides crucial cradle to career support in 17 neighborhoods in the Hope Zone and continues efforts to break down systemic barriers in what they refer to as the four primary pillars: education, economic stability, community engagement, and health and wellness.    

One Omega CDC initiative gaining traction, and modeled nationally by other Promise Neighborhoods, is the neighborhood-led work groups focused around the four designated pillars. Attracting an average attendance of 150 -160 people a month, these groups are building paths to self-sufficiency in what Ward calls “a truly cohesive community.”  

Another targeted intervention is a recent 12-week pilot program where 94% of participating third graders from Fairview Elementary School advanced their reading skills by one year.  

 “We know that some of these interventions matter,” expressed Ward. “When we layer these strategies on top of having caring adults that are supporting them in safe environments and all of these partnerships being wrapped around our young people, that we are able to see some amazing outcomes.”   

The Hope Center   

At the heart of the Omega CDC work is The Hope Center which offers wraparound services for the community. Located on a sprawling 30-acre campus – the former home of the United Theological Seminary – the center is surrounded by trees lined landscapes designed by the Olmstead Brothers, prominent architects who created iconic spots including NY’s Central Park and Yosemite Valley.   

To streamline resources, Omega CDC collaborated with several organizations with the same parallel missions.  

•  Mini University Inc.: An early childhood center for children aged six weeks to five years old has around 115 children who attend. The center works with Preschool Promise but also provides for private pay and tuition support. 

• Dayton Children’s Pediatrics: Just upstairs from Mini University is Dayton Children’s, a full-service pediatric clinic. Staffed with three pediatricians, community health workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, and a full-service nurse station, the clinic on average treats anywhere from 40 to 50 patients daily.  Ward further adds that there are thousands of young people throughout the Hope Zone that are seen right at this pediatric clinic.   

Eliminating Barriers to Care 

When Omega CDC staff realized that many of the children at Mini University needed speech and occupational support, Dayton Children’s added an office in Mini University, helping many parents eliminate barriers to care such as time off work, transportation means and long waits for referrals.   

“They can receive their speech and occupational therapy right here on site while they’re in their early childcare center,” says Ward. And if a child gets sick at Mini University, they can be seen within 90 minutes, as long as they’re a Dayton Children’s patient.  

Workforce Development    

And just down the hall from Dayton Children’s is Sinclair Community College. For many seeking to improve their prospects for employment, Sinclair offers several short-term certificates courses for getting people into the workforce rapidly. Classes include: 

• Nurse aide training  

• Phlebotomy  

• Dining Assistant    

“What’s great about these short-term certificates is that they also can be built on into longer term programs,” says Dawna Remencus, Director of Strategic Initiatives and Sinclair Liaison. “So, if students want to go on for other things, they already have a head start.”   

Empowering Families: Omega CDC Family Services  

The Hope Center also houses Omega CDC’s Family Services offices which include the workforce development team, family programming teams, as well as their senior sustainability coordinator.  

 A keystone of their family programing is maternal coaching.  Janiece Malone, a maternal coach with Omega, works directly with pregnant moms like Maelishia McIntosh and mothers with a child up to age one, to help build a stable future.   

Malone says most families already have goals that they want to complete.  “My role is to really be their accountability partner,” says Malone, noting that in most cases it can be life changing. “You never know what can be done in a year and how things can turn around in a year.” 

McIntosh explains that during a coaching session they cover things like budgeting, debt management and employment, and resources. For her, having an active listener invested in her success is reassuring. “It just feels good to actually just be able to sit down and talk to someone who cares about you, cares about your birth, who cares to support you,” McIntosh shared.   

Vision for Change 

But even though Ward and her team would like to see change occur faster, they are aware that reversing a course takes time and continuous resources.  

“The challenges around education and economic stability and housing are things that have existed for a number of years. And so they’re not going to change overnight,” says Ward.   

Omega CDC is working to harness the abundance of talent and treasure from the neighborhoods and her vision and hope is that the impact of Omega CDC’s work will be sustained by the children and families of the community long after they have finished their work.   

Ward adds, “That has always been the hope that Omega wouldn’t necessarily be the folks to carry the water of systems change, but that the people who were most proximate to the challenges and to the opportunities would be the ones who had voice and could lift their voices to say what it is that they want and need in their communities.” 

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Emiko M. TTV Bio Code

Emiko Moore – Multi-Media Journalist

Emiko Moore is a graduate of Ohio State University has been a freelance producer for NBC News for the last 20 years, covering stories in southwest Ohio and in the tri-state area. She also hosted The Lebanon City Show and was a print journalist for the Western Star, focusing on Warren County. Prior to moving back to her hometown of Lebanon, OH, she worked in NYC for NBC TODAY and NHK, Japan Broadcasting Corporation. As a volunteer with Building Bridges Community Conversations, Ishinomaki Playground Project, and Miller Ecological Park, she believes it takes continuous work to strengthen communities. She is excited about journalism that explores the issues while highlighting solutions to bring about positive change.