BLOC Ministries’ roots are in Knoxville. Dwight and Stephanie Young, BLOC’s founders, met and married while they were undergraduate students at Johnson University. Shortly after Dwight completed seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, the Youngs began full-time youth ministry at Woodlawn Christian Church in South Knox. The youth expressed a desire to serve people in the community, so Dwight and Stephanie encouraged the students to organize their own outreaches to the homeless and neighborhood kids as well as worship services and other activities.

In the early ’90s, Dwight and Stephanie moved to Cincinnati. Dwight served as a youth minister at a westside church and Stephanie, a licensed counselor, began her practice. It didn’t take long for their passion for urban ministry to be reignited and in 1998, they started BLOC and transitioned into full-time community ministry.

Dwight and Stephanie retained close ties to Woodlawn. Every other year Woodlawn sent youth to Cincinnati on mission trips. An entire generation watched BLOC grow from a small after-school program to what it is today: a holistic ministry whose full-time program staff lives in Cincinnati’s Price Hill neighborhood and serves our neighbors in practical ways. After every trip to Cincinnati, the Woodlawn youth would see the work BLOC was doing and they would come home and say, “We need a BLOC in South Knox!” Finally, in early 2022, with the youth now young adults and their parents now leaders in the congregation and the community, Woodlawn decided that it was time. They called and said, “Let’s bring BLOC to Knoxville.”

We’ve been doing a lot of listening and learning throughout South Knox and the three programs we’ve started—BLOC Buddies, 2nd Saturdays, and The Sanctuary—have emerged from those conversations. We are falling in love with the kids, parents, ministry partners, community leaders, and volunteers we’re serving and serving alongside. What a joy it is to learn what’s working and how we can build on those strengths. And how sobering it is to see what the needs are. We want to put down roots in Vestal and create space for connection, community, and hope and Bring the Love of Christ in practical, life-giving ways.