Where It All Began

Kathleen Greely is a two-time cancer survivor, cultural strategist, and the founding force behind CRC–Englewood. Rooted in lived experience and a deep commitment to healing justice, Kathleen has transformed pain into purpose — building platforms where community voice, legacy, and leadership intersect.

Founded and led by Kathleen, CRC–Englewood has coordinated workforce initiatives, community festivals, intergenerational forums, and storytelling campaigns that engage more than 2,500 residents each year. Her vision is simple but profound: when residents reclaim their stories, they reclaim their futures.

“We don’t just develop programs — we cultivate belonging. We don't just serve the community — we are the community. Our work is legacy-grounded and future-driven.   We’re not just building programs. We’re building the infrastructure of belonging—a model Toledo can carry forward.”
— Kathleen Greely
 

Founded in 2020 and re-established in 2023 with renewed purpose, the Community Reinvestment Coalition – Englewood SW (CRC–Englewood) began as a grassroots response to long-standing disinvestment in Toledo’s Englewood District.

We saw the gaps — in opportunity, infrastructure, leadership development, and safety. But more importantly, we saw the people. Neighbors with solutions. Youth with vision. Elders with wisdom.

CRC–Englewood emerged to cultivate that collective power. From housing conversations to community festivals, and mentorship initiatives to storytelling campaigns, our work has been fueled by a simple truth: sustainable change must be authored by the people it’s meant to serve.

Today, we continue building that legacy — one program, one partner, and one reclaimed narrative at a time.

CRC–Englewood exists to strengthen families and revitalize neighborhoods through strategic economic and community development. We equip residents—especially African American men and youth—with tools for leadership, mentorship, and civic engagement, addressing systemic inequities at the root.

We believe every resident deserves access to opportunity, dignity, and safe spaces to heal, grow, and lead.

Each of our programs is a heartbeat of our mission — designed to heal, empower, and build the cultural infrastructure Toledo deserves.

Our flagship program. A trauma-informed, nine-week storytelling cohort where youth (ages 16–24) and elders co-create media that reclaim erased narratives, explore unsolved histories, and restore public memory.

Impact: Produces civic storytellers, preserves community memory, and bridges generations through public forums, murals, and multimedia tools.

🧩 Evolved from the Black Kings | Black Prince Mentorship Program, Voices Uncovered maintains its spirit of cultural legacy, intergenerational learning, and youth empowerment — now rooted in storytelling and civic healing.

What began as the Black Kings Awards — a platform to honor African American men shaping Toledo — has grown into a deeper, more intergenerational movement. Originally created to fill a void in succession planning and public recognition, the program has evolved into Voices Uncovered: Sacred Echoes — a storytelling and leadership initiative that equips youth and elders to co-author healing, public memory, and civic identity.

The Black Kings platform provided not just awards — but voice, space, and belonging. Through years of mentorship conversations, community events, and forums, it became clear that the next step wasn’t just to celebrate legacy, but to pass it on.

✨ That spark became Voices Uncovered: a trauma-informed, civic storytelling cohort rooted in the same principles — dignity, narrative power, and intergenerational trust.
 

• The values of the Black Kings Awards — leadership, visibility, and cultural integrity — now live within Voices Uncovered.
   
• Our youth cohorts inherit a legacy of advocacy and step into roles as documentarians, justice messengers, and future mentors.
   
• Our elders and honorees continue to guide and shape this new era of narrative leadership.
   

Through Voices Uncovered, we are still mentoring, still healing, still uplifting Black leaders — only now, we’re doing it side-by-side with young people, and building civic memory in the process.

Over the past three years, CRC–Englewood has engaged more than 7,500 residents through programming rooted in healing, equity, and transformation. Our model blends workforce development, youth leadership, civic storytelling, and cultural celebration — not just to serve communities, but to build lasting capacity within them.

• 🎓 Workforce Impact: GED access through Owens Inspire, job readiness initiatives, and direct-to-hire pipelines with local employers.
   
• 📣 Youth Voice: 50+ youth trained in media ethics, narrative justice, and civic leadership — with alums returning as mentors and facilitators.
   
• 🎭 Cultural Reach: A six-day Black Restaurant Crawl and the Juneteenth Toledo Festival & Minority Health Summit, drawing thousands across Lucas County.
   
• 🧱 Infrastructure of Belonging: Multi-sector partnerships with schools, churches, city agencies, and regional media for more profound neighborhood impact.
   
• 🔁 Legacy in Motion: Our alumni pipeline reflects a full-circle model — where today’s participants become tomorrow’s leaders.
   

We don’t just host programs. We plant legacy. We shift narratives. We build the infrastructure for communities to rise.

CRC–Englewood thrives because of the powerful, community-rooted partnerships we’ve built across sectors.

From neighborhood parishes to public schools, from workforce boards to cultural institutions, our collaborators share a commitment to equity, healing, and opportunity. Together, we bridge silos and design interventions that are hyperlocal, trauma-informed, and scalable.

CRC–Englewood SW thrives through a trusted network of faith-based, civic, educational, and grassroots partners. These partnerships aren’t transactional — they are transformational. Together, we co-design solutions that are culturally relevant, trauma-informed, and community-authored.

We work alongside:

• Ohio Means Jobs, Pathway, Inc., United Way-African American Leadership  Council, NAACP Toledo Branch, and Ternion Training & Education Center – Toledo Campus, which provides comprehensive job-readiness and placement resources for residents, along with leadership and economic mobility pathways; for workforce placement and training;
  
• Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance (IMA) to ensure our work reflects and serves Black communities with dignity and care;
   
• St. Martin de Porres Parish and Robinson Elementary to anchor place-based Youth sports events, education, community resources, and family supports;
   
• Broken Crayons Still Coloring™ and Millennium Media Group (MMG) to deliver trauma-informed facilitation, media coaching, and public storytelling platforms.
   

As our work deepens, our circle expands. We are actively cultivating new collaborations with public media, cultural institutions, and national funders to elevate community-rooted storytelling and scale the impact of our Justice Storytelling Toolkit™.
 

These partnerships allow us to scale impact without losing intimacy — ensuring each project reflects the voice, needs, and vision of the Englewood and Junction communities we serve.

We’re not just building bridges.