DETROIT – An old Detroit school building that shut down years ago has an exciting new purpose as the place where kids once learned has been transformed into a community center.
“I almost walked back out, but Jason had the vision saying, ‘Oh no, we can do something,’” said The Yunion Executive Director Nicole Wilson.
Wilson and her husband Jason transformed an old school building
into a youth development center where they know transformations happen.
“That is the concept of The Cave of Adullam,” Wilson said. “You come out of the cave one way, but you exit another way.”
The Yunion on Oakman Boulevard is stunning, as each room has a place for young people to learn job and life skills.
The upstairs portion of the building is the key, as it is where boys learn to master their emotions.
“One of the lines in our creed says, I will not be mastered by my emotions as instead, I will rule over them,” said Jason Wilson.
That message is heavy lifting for Jason, who calls the room the Cave of Adellum, where martial arts boys heal from trauma and learn to rule their emotions.
Jason said that for most who come through the program, their grades improve without tutoring.
“That shows you the power of just letting a boy have the freedom to feel and be human to express the things that are troubling him,” Jason said. “Not sadness or depression but a moment and then move on.”
Due to the success of the community center, there is a 700-person waitlist to take part in the program.
