Penn Hills-based nonprofit breaks ground on new community center

Kahlil Darden Jr. is a man who wants to make a difference.

After experiencing loss multiple times throughout his life, he has decided to channel his grief into helping his community grow.

The Penn Hills High School graduate is the founder and CEO of Young Black Motivated Kings & Queens (YBMKQ), a nonprofit that specializes in mentoring middle- and high-school youths in serving the community and cultivating their hobbies and interests.

As a part of the organization’s mission, the group officially broke ground on a new community center Jan. 13.

Darden described the center as a one-stop shop where young people in the community can come to learn and access the resources they need to tap into their full potential.

“We’ll have everything from day care, to Head Start, to community co-working spaces, libraries, after-school programs, summer camp,” said Darden, 22. “We’ll have a recording studio space where people can come and make music or record podcasts. We’ll have an art studio where youth can come and make visual art. We’ll have a bunch of different things where young people can come and cultivate every bit of an experience of what their life will look like.”

The Young Black Motivated Kings & Queens: De’Avry A. Thomas Community Center, formerly the Lincoln Park Community Center on Ridgeview Avenue, will feature reading rooms, study areas, co-working spaces and technology, including a computer lab, 3D printers and STEM programming.

The community center, named in honor of Darden’s godson, an 18-month-old shooting victim, aims to combat gun violence and provide a safe space for students to explore extracurricular activities and careers.

Darden said the organization plans to partner with other community members, including business owners and professionals, to include the entire community in the center’s growth.

When the YMCA in Penn Hills closed in 2018, Darden recalled how the absence of the local gathering place affected his peers. There was a noticeable rise in gun violence and attendance numbers dropped in school, he said.

Without a place to meet for after-school activities, people “stopped doing normal-day stuff and were just getting into reckless activities because they didn’t have anything else to do,” he said.

“For me, it’s being able to cultivate and create that environment for our young people so they can have a safe place to go,” he said.

After a year of searching for a space, Darden said the group purchased the building in November for about $45,000 with the help of donations. He and his team shared their plans with the previous owner of the building and were able to move on the sale.

The renovation will cost about $3 million and is expected to be done in a year and a half, Darden said.

“I grew up right around the corner from the center,” Darden said. “For me, it’s being able to come back directly to my community — where I graduated, where I grew up — to be able to pour into the young people here.”

Darden began wanting to help people feel safer in the community when his uncle was murdered in 2013. He felt it was necessary for young people to have a safe space to go to and be able to speak about the experiences they had. The need to make this vision a reality intensified when his best friend was murdered during Darden’s freshman year of college and when he lost his godson to gun violence just two years ago.

“It’s so important to continue to cultivate environments where these same circumstances don’t continue to impact the young people in our communities,” Darden said.