Can a basketball court spur economic development? This Shawnee pastor says it will

Eric Johnson has a vision for his community that involves basketball tournaments where local vendors can sell their goods, where local artists can display their talents and earn money, where kids in Shawnee can play safely.

He's thinking about jazz concerts, farmer's markets and food trucks. He's thinking about economic development and financial mobility.

Right now, none of that exists. But Johnson, pastor of Greater Galilee Baptist Church, has raised about $100,000 toward making it a reality. It is the latest endeavor by the pastor, who has been serving the Louisville's Shawnee neighborhood about 30 years.

"We're trying to be a positive congregation that's not just focusing on the problem but going upstream to find solutions," he said in August.

Johnson's goal is to build an outdoor athletic facility on an empty lot across from his church at Broadway and South 40th Street. The church has owned the lot since 2016, and the hope is to start construction in February, building what can be done with the funds in hand and continuing as more comes in. Renderings show a covered basketball court that is lighted and fenced in.

The hope is that the facility can make a tangible - not conceptual - difference in residents' lives, building upon the programs Johnson's church already offers.

"West Louisville does not have enough serious economic drivers," Johnson said this summer. "There's development going on in east Louisville every day, but seldom do you see anything happening in west Louisville."

Johnson showed little doubt in his plan for the empty lot, nor its significance. He remodeled the basement of his church, then remodeled it again after it flooded - done with money he raised. He'd made it through the pandemic when many churches went under and he's maintained a congregation of nearly 300 people despite the surrounding community's challenges.

On a recent summer day, the faces of civil rights leaders, alongside scripted inspirational quotes line the basement walls where about 50 students gathered four days a week. Johnson and his staff recognize the vast needs they have and the uphill battle they are fighting - including against poor educational outcomes, gun violence, and food and economic insecurity.

"There are a lot of aspects - it's not just one thing," he said of the challenges they face. "It's like jambalaya."

The program is intentional with the lessons. While improving their academic scores is a major aspect of the work, exposing them to the world outside Shawnee is just as important.

"We try to get them out of the community as much as we can, to expand, educate and expose so they can elevate," Johnson said.

While the church's summer program started several years ago, Johnson said he's noticed an uptick in his kids' anxiety in the aftermath of the pandemic that coincided with an uptick in gun violence throughout Louisville, but especially in the West End.

"A lot of kids just need a place to be a kid," he said. "There’s not a kid in my program who hasn’t either had someone shot or knows someone who has been shot."

In hopes of preventing further trauma, Johnson said he is taking kids off the street and "letting them know they are valuable, letting them know they have worth, letting them know they are not just here to die."

The program takes the students swimming and bowling - and to college campuses. This past summer they went to Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana. Over the years, he's taken kids to the aquarium in Newport and the National African American Museum in Cincinnati. They visited a boxing gym in east Louisville and spoke with the president of Spalding University. On Mondays they do robotics, on Wednesday they focus on their business plans. One student spent the summer selling popcorn to his peers.

"One of my deacons said the only time he left west Louisville when he was young was on a bus to go to prison," Johnson recalled when preaching about the need to expand young people's point of view.

This work continues throughout the year, he said, with his staff keeping up with the kids, their report cards and their families. For Christmas, they raised enough money to give about a dozen a Christmas full of presents - bikes, dolls, shoes, clothes.

The church also donated to area shelters, to the staff at Shawnee High and Farnsley Middle, and fed seniors at the center down the block - which they do on a regular basis.

This latest endeavor, Johnson said, is expected to cost about $500,000.

While an athletic facility might not mean much to some areas, it has major significance in Johnson's eyes.

"That structure will give us an economic driver," he said. The basketball tournaments will provide more than entertainment."

More than anything, he said, "We're going to use it to bring our community together. We have a lot of vision for that."

Contact reporter Krista Johnson at kjohnson3@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville economic development: Shawnee pastor has ideas for growth