Jesse Dowdell to retire from Southwest Community Center - YNN.com

Updated?04/10/2013 05:58 PM

The Southwest Community Center has evolved into a place that provides resources to residents. Those resources range from after school programs to family health activities. Many of these programs were developed under the leadership of Executive Director Jesse Dowdell, who has announced he is retiring at the end of the month. Our Iris St. Meran spoke with him about his career, what's next and what he'd like to see done there in the future.

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SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- It takes a lot of boxes to pack up a 26 year career. Jesse Dowdell is retiring as Executive Director of the Southwest Community Center. Although he's packing up his office, he's leaving behind his legacy and a grateful community.

United Way CNY Trauma Response Team Director Timothy Jennings-Bey said, "He provided a lot of people with the opportunity to gain employment here through this facility, put people in positions so they could feed their families."

Jennings-Bey says the center is more like a family and that's due in part to Dowdell. Dowdell says he's enjoyed his time at the Center. He took the job for one reason.

"I wanted to make a difference in my community," Dowdell said.

And he has. He's leaving the center in a good place, he says, but feels it's time for new leadership. He's seen both the community and the center transform. When he started, the operating budget was $280,000 and now it's $4.2 million. The staff grew from seven to 70 because of the programs offered here.

"We deliver substance abuse services. We're an MSA, meaning we work with people that are affected or infected by the HIV virus. We do drug education,? Dowdell explained.

And the list goes on.

Over the years, the streets that surround the community center have been plagued by violence. Dowdell says one of the things he's proud of is that the building has always been a safe haven for the city's youth.

Dowdell added, "We know we can affect negative behavior by moving in with a positive activity. So that's what I'd like to think we've done in our community, with our community and we've brought the positiveness to offset that negativeness."

Dowdell says he wishes he could have done more during his time to instill the importance of education in a larger segment of the youth because having that knowledge helped him along the way.

He hopes the next executive director will keep the ties to the community strong. And those ties are part of the foundation here that he helped to build.

Dowdell isn't quite sure what he'll do next. First on his list is to just enjoy retirement. He says Sharon Owens, the city's Neighborhood and Business Development Deputy Commissioner, will take over as the new Executive Director.

Source: http://centralny.ynn.com/content/top_stories/655259/jesse-dowdell-to-retire-from-southwest-community-center/

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