Our Delaware is a monthly series that will explore the history of communities and the institutions that serve them around the state. To suggest a potential topic for an upcoming feature, email Editor-In-Chief Jacob Owens.
Why Should Delaware Care
For more than 70 years, Kingswood Community Center has provided education and family services in one of Wilmington’s most vulnerable communities and is now preparing a major expansion. Despite the challenges the Riverside community has faced, these efforts continue to provide direct support and opportunities for local residents, reducing barriers to services that many would have to look elsewhere to find.
The Kingswood Community Center started 70 years ago as a daycare and nursery. It quickly expanded to add facilities where kids could play sports, do art, or learn how to play musical instruments.
Located in Riverside, a northeast Wilmington neighborhood long affected by crime and poverty, Kingswood grew to be a barrier-breaking Delaware program and supportive arm for locals, providing them with child care, senior care and social services.
Today, the center has become the foundation for a more recent initiative called The WRK Group, a coalition of three separate nonprofits including their founding body Kingswood Community Center, The Warehouse, a teen program facility; and REACH Riverside, a development arm that is revitalizing the community.
Under the leadership of notable nonprofit figures like Logan Herring, Kenyetta McCurdy-Byrd and Laura Mood, and with help of the millions in donations they receive from state and federal grants, WRK Group aims to further expand its services to address more issues in the community like housing.
While Kingswood’s evolution has introduced challenges and even concerns about accessibility due to its growing structure, many believe it is an important community space, and with its most recent plans to build mixed-income housing and expand the Kingswood Community Center, the WRK Group hopes to revitalize the Riverside community.
In August, officials broke ground on the new Kingswood facility, which is set to be completed in the next two years. The new center will allow them to expand their services, particularly with their Early Learning Academy for children and their Jimmy Jenkins Senior Center for the elderly. The new building will be 81,000 square feet, almost five times the size of their current building.
In addition, the WRK Group is tackling the affordable housing crisis by developing Imani Village, mixed-income housing to replace the dilapidated Riverside projects. The initiative is support by more than $100 million in federal and state grants, along with tax credits and
The history of Kingswood
The original Kingswood Community Center was founded in 1946 by W.W. Laird, a descendant of the famed du Pont family, in the Kingswood Methodist United Church at 14th and Claymont streets.
Initially providing daycare and a nursery, the all-white church eventually took a significant step toward becoming Delaware’s first integrated community center in 1949 when Ernie Webster, the center’s first Black employee, introduced a kindergarten program for children of color.
At the time, the kindergarten was housed in the showers of the church, and when they became too cold for the children, Webster used his house for a sanctuary for a short period. It’s a time his daughter, who was also part of the program, remembers vividly.
“The first teacher was my aunt. My brother was in that class, my cousins were in that class and some others from the neighborhood were part of that class,” said Theressa “Tessie” Holmes, who is now a board member of the WRK Group.
Theressa “Tessie” Holmes is the daughter of longtime director Ernie Webster and one of the center’s first Black students. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY JACOB OWENS
Webster expanded the youth programs, leading girls’ and boys’ softball teams, basketball teams, boxing classes, and Scouting along with different arts and music programs. He would go on to be Kingswood’s program coordinator, servicing the center for more than 40 years.
Kingswood dominated the youth sports in its era, winning state championships consecutively in track, baseball and basketball – becoming known as “the home of champions.” By 1953, Kingswood had over 1,000 youth enrolled in their program.
In 1958, the current Kingswood Community Center, which sits at the intersection of 23rd and Bowers streets was purchased, running simultaneously with the church until 1969.
By the late ‘60s, the residents of Riverside and the northeast area were mostly of color. Following “white flight,” the community gradually became subject to high unemployment rates and high crime.
Kingswood was the first community center to become integrated, albeit Black students were originally required to attend ina makeshift space. | PHOTO COURTESY OF THERSSA HOLMES
In 1966, the Jimmy Jenkins Senior Center – named after Tessie’s late uncle – was established and provided different types of services for elders, including meals, assistance with doctor’s appointments and various other physical, health, and social support services.
Bernadette Winston, Kingswood’s first female executive director, began as a social services director for the senior center in the late ‘70s.
Now retired at 76, Winston fondly remembers Kingswood being like a “family” to her.
Before becoming executive director in 2006, she also led the center’s community and family services, providing assistance for those with mental health needs, food insecurities, help with burials for families and clothing assistance to locals in need.
For Winston, the evolution of Kingswood is bittersweet, as she remembers a place where anyone could simply walk in and find the help they needed.
“When I was over Kingswood, we had prisoners who’d get out of jail at 10 or 11 p.m. at night,” Winston recalled. “They’d be on this doorstep in the morning when I came into work, because they’d let them go with no ID, nowhere to go. That’s one thing I hated, like with a passion, and I would try to get them food and clothing.”
Now, she feels operations have shifted in a way that feels less personal, as the center operates today with more structure and accessing personalized services can be more difficult. Yet, despite the shift she remains hopeful about the center’s future.
Ms. Winston’s tenure ended in 2014, but her final years came with challenges for the center.
In 2012, an incident involving her husband, George Winston, who provided IT services for Kingwood, was accused by members of the center of overcharging for services, which led to a lawsuit and an investigation by an independent auditor.
Although Winston said the investigation eventually cleared her of any involvement and her husband of any wrongdoing, the media attention framed both her, her husband and the center in a negative light.
And after Winston’s departure, her successor was found to have embezzled funds. He stayed for only a year but his actions disrupted the community center’s operations, leading to a period of damage control.
That changed in 2016, when a young nonprofit executive, Logan Herring Sr., took over operations amid a major change in strategy.
Building with purpose
The WRK Group was established in 2017, uniting the Warehouse, REACH Riverside and Kingswood to lead a “large-scale community revitalization effort.”
The group follows the Purpose Built Communities model, a guided approach to creating holistic and equitable neighborhoods. According to the model, if a community has mixed income housing, cradle-to-college education, community health and wellness and economic vitality, it will thrive.
The WRK Group is one of 27 purpose built communities in the nation.
Almost 40% of children live below the poverty line in Riverside, while 87% of households are run by single women, creating a high demand for family services, according to the organization.
Kingswood tries to address these needs with a wide range of programming and services, all of which are free of charge.
Logan Herring Sr., was a leader in the Boys & Girls Club of Delaware when he was tapped to lead the WRK Group project. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY BRIANNA HILL
“We like to say we offer services and programs from the cradle to the cane,” said Herring, CEO of the Kingswood Community Center and WRK Group.
A key focus is education, with the center partnering with different schools in the area like Eastside Charter School and New Castle Elementary School. Kingswood’s Early Learning Academy (ELA) serves children ages 1-5, preparing them for kindergarten with individualized learning plans and supportive services like case management and help with school applications for families.
Robert Adams, curriculum coordinator for the ELA, said the daycare is in the process of transitioning to a Montessori curriculum, which features a hands-on approach to learning that allows children to develop a sense of independence and foster creativity by giving them the opportunity to experiment with different materials and explore activities at their own pace.
The ELA serves 80 children a day, which includes the before and aftercare they offer to school-aged children between the ages of 5 and 12.
The Warehouse, which opened in 2020 and houses the WRK Group’s teen and young adult programs, was developed in response to rising crime rates in the community.
Herring said he was inspired to develop the program after seeing a 2014 article from Newsweek in which they had dubbed Wilmington “Murder Town USA.”
The article revealed Wilmington had a violent crime rate that was more than four times the per capita national average. Then-Mayor Dennis Williams attributed the problem to the failures of the city’s school system.
The Riverside community has long struggled with poverty and gun violence, but new efforts are helping to give teens new opportunities. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY BRIANNA HILL
During the 2018-2019 school year, the Brandywine school district had a dropout rate of 1.7% while the Colonial School District had a rate of 1.3%, both of which embody the northeast side of Wilmington. Since then, the dropout rate has increased for the 2022-2023 school year to 2.1% and 6.4%, respectively.
And while the city saw a 22% reduction in murders, marking the lowest rate the city has seen since 2003, shooting incidents slightly increased from 83 in 2022 to 91 2023, though still below levels seen in recent years.
Juvenile gun arrests also dropped by more than 50% from 45 in 2022 to 26 in 2023, the lowest number since 2019. In addition, there has been a reduction in group and gang-related violence.
Although the city has made headway on these issues, these trends continue to impact communities like Riverside, prompting a need for things like youth programming.
The Warehouse is run by teens with adult advisors, and even includes teens on its board of directors, giving them ownership of its success. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY BRIANNA HILL
The Warehouse provides hands-on professional development for teens through their 12-week RISE program, a paid-to-learn initiative created by teens for teens. The facility, designed in collaboration with a cohort of teen executives, serves both in-school youth between ages 14-18 and out-of-school at-risk youth ages 18-24.
In-school teens receive workforce development and soft training skills like how to network, write a resume and even craft an elevator pitch. They also participate in internships and externships of their choosing with partners like the Nature Conservancy to learn about green jobs, Tapp Network to learn about doing digital media or the Buccini/Pollin Group for culinary arts.
Jade Drummond, 17, came to the center only to make a few extra bucks, but her interest was sparked once she started to learn skills she never expected to learn at her age.
“I’m like 14-15 years old, but I’m talking to presidents of universities and CEOs of companies and stuff like that. That’s what kind of started to spark my interest. I’m like, ‘Wow, I actually like this job,’” Drummond recalled.
Jade Drummond said that she discovered opportunities at The Warehouse that she didn’t think existed in Riverside. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY BRIANNA HILL
Now a high school senior, she has become a “teen executive” for the Warehouse, advancing her career skills while advocating for her peers at the facility.
The Warehouse’s out-of-school youth, which include teens who are parenting, low-income or justice-involved, gain workforce skills through partnerships with institutions like Delaware Technical Community College and the Dawn Institute. This program, funded by the Department of Labor, also covers certification costs for certified nursing assistants, commercial driver’s licenses and medical assistant training, along with bus passes and equipment funding.
The program also monitors job placement success for a year to ensure retention and stability.
Families who are interested in the program must apply to participate on their site and will go through an interview process before teens are considered for admittance. Thus far, the RISE program has served about 700 youth.
Service opportunities are also available for the teens in addition to a free general admission membership that any young resident can acquire to access the recreational facilities that the Warehouse offers, like their gym, art room and therapy room.
The WRK Group’s Jimmy Jenkins Senior Center, housed in the Kingswood Community Center with the ELA continues to provide services for seniors 55 and over, providing arts and culture workshops, health information sessions, screenings and daily meals.
The center is also a social hub for elders, offering different activities like trips to museums, casinos, bingo and others.
“It’s a blessing for us to be here and be among people our own age and interact and just cry with one another every now and then,” said Thelma Dennison, a senior at the center.
The WRK Group continues to offer other services like social services for families in need, access to their food pantry at the Warehouse, a community garden and their community refrigerators at both Kingswood and the Warehouse, which are open to the public 24/7.
The new $56 million Kingswood Community Center will more than quadruple the available capacity. | PHOTO COURTESY OF EDIS COMPANY
Future endeavors
Since its inception, the WRK Group has received support from a variety of entities, including the state, the city of Wilmington, ChristianaCare, Wells Fargo Bank and Capital One – with total support surpassing $239 million.
One of the biggest problems the organization now faces is capacity. But with the new $56 million Kingswood Community Center, they will triple their capacity to be able to serve three times the children, crucial to families who are on the ELA waitlist.
The new center will also serve children who are as young as 6 weeks old, giving families new childcare opportunities and ensuring lifelong learning for a new generation.
The development of their housing, the Imani Village, is being guided by REACH Riverside, in partnership with the Wilmington Housing Authority and Penrose, their master developer.
Imani Village is the new housing community that is replacing hundreds of aging subsidized Wilmington Housing Authority units in Riverside. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY BRIANNA HILL
Thus far, 141 homes have been built and 125 of the homes are occupied by people who were living across the street in the old projects. By 2031, they plan to have about 700 rental units built, in addition to 100 home ownership units.
Herring said he believes in creating “gentrification without displacement,” shifting away from the failed model of concentrated poverty.
”When you have a mixed income community, you have a community where whether you’re in the deeply subsidized or a homeownership unit, they benefit from being around one another,” he explained. “And then the people who may need to work on financial aspects, they’re able to see what it looks like, and they’re able to support one another.”
While offering subsidized units based on income, there are also market-rate units, with two-bedroom units costing $1,250 and three-bedroom units costing $1,350.
In Riverside, the median household income is $9,277 for those in subsidized housing and $25,326 in non-subsidized housing, according to the REACH Riverside.
The current Kingswood community center will also be demolished for additional housing after the new one is built. And as they await the completion of the new center and new housing, the WRK Group continues to provide the support it can to those who need it most.
For Webster’s daughter, these changes are a reflection of the core values Kingswood was built upon.
“It’s a place where people come together, not only young people, but adults as well. And really an essence of what community means,” Tessie said. “So that, to me, is what Kingswood represents. And I think as long as Kingswood stands, that’s what it will represent. And I think it will stand for eons and eons to come.”
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