Newly renovated Price Hill community center helping at-risk youth, adults find comfort

CINCINNATI (WXIX) - There is a newly renovated place to go for at-risk people of all ages in Price Hill - Lord’s Gym Ministries.

The building is more than 100 years old and went from a bowling alley to a club and now a community center, but it was a labor of love, physically and emotionally, to get to this point.

From struggling to fight drug addiction or abuse to even sex trafficking, everyone is welcome at Lord’s Gym Ministries.

Inside Lord’s Gym Ministries in Price Hill, you will find people gathering to share a meal or a cup of coffee or just conversation.

The facility was recently renovated and reopened thanks to lots of donations and hard work from people like Scott Bowers.

“The emphasis behind the Lord’s Gym Ministries is to engage people across the Tri-State in need,” explains Bowers, Lord’s Gym Ministries executive director. “You call them at-risk, to build relationships with our friends. To create a safe place for them to come into to know that nobody is going to hurt them. And we go to great lengths to ensure that. And then to try to meet their personal needs in any way we can.”

Part of the money raised to renovate this facility came from Bowers’ bike ride across America last year when he was 64 years old.

FOX19 NOW spoke to him along the way as he took one of the hardest Transamerica routes to raise money and spread awareness about Lord’s Gym Ministries.

Bowers says it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience on a personal level.

“People that I met were so gracious, so hospitable, so engaging,” remembers Bowers. “I’m sure I met people from every political landscape and all that. People were concerned about me and my trip.”

Bowers raised $40,000 from that ride all to benefit the “friends,” as he calls them, inside the family activity center.

Lord’s Gym Ministries has been around since 1993 to serve at-risk youth and adults in the Tri-State. It is a faith-based non-profit providing services and fellowship to those in need.

The renovation took six years. That labor of love is similar to that of the people that decide to change their lives.

“This restoration that we’ve seen this building go through over these six years is a great metaphor for what it takes to see a transformed life,” explains Bowers, “At least with the people we work with. Typically, our friends need to go through a detox process, a sober living, and a retool to be able to get a job, to get new housing, and so forth. That doesn’t happen overnight.”

To find out more about the events happening at the Lord’s Gym Ministries Family Activity Center, you can follow this link.

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