Miami Valley Urban League opens space at Dayton Arcade
The Miami Valley Urban League made its move to the Dayton Arcade official, opening its space at the building’s Innovation Hub this week.
“Today it marks a milestone for the Urban League in continuing our work here in Dayton,” said Nikol Miller, executive director of Miami Valley Urban League.
The Miami Valley Urban League is moving the needle on generational poverty, Miller said, as the organization offers a variety of services including job training and placement.
By opening offices in the Dayton Arcade, the organization is closer to its business partners, as well as near the RTA hub, Miller said.
The Miami Valley Urban League is part of the Urban League of Greater Southwestern Ohio, the mission of which is “to help Black people and historically underserved communities achieve their highest true social parity, economic self-reliance, power, civil rights and justice,” its website says.
The Miami Valley Urban League’s offices were previously in a building on the 900 block of West Fifth Street, in the Five Points neighborhood and the Innerwest area. The Miami Valley Urban League serves Montgomery, Greene, Preble, Miami and Darke counties.
“This space, now being enhanced by Nikol and what she’s doing at the Urban League, is another tribute to the success of Dayton,” said Dayton Mayor Jeffrey J. Mims Jr.
The city of Dayton aided the group’s move by pro- viding the organization $150,000 to help with its move into the Hub Annex, 29 S. Main St, according to city documents.
The funding helped pay for interior and exterior facil- ity improvements, mechanical system upgrades and new equipment, furniture and fixtures.
The total project cost was previously estimated at $433,000.
Unrelated to the move, the city of Dayton provided the Miami Valley Urban League with $1.5 million of ARPA funds to be used for offering business coaching and micro-grants of up to $10,000.
“This is a testament to vision,” said Scott Koorndyk, president of the Entrepreneur Center. The Dayton Arcade’s Innovation Hub has about 150 companies that work in that space, Koorndyk said.
“The issues that we face in our community around this country are real, so it takes the collective community to be able to move the agenda on equity,” said Marya Rutherford Long, Miami Valley Urban League Advisory Board chair, who has been volunteering at the Miami Valley Urban League for 25 years.