"This place and God saved my life." Canton man credits Total Living Center for turnaround

CANTON − Not so long ago, Charley Baldwin spent his days loitering outside a convenience store in his southwest neighborhood, seeking money to feed his alcohol and drug addictions.

Now you can find him leading morning and lunchtime prayers as a volunteer at the Total Living Center.

Baldwin, 53, credits God, and the mission at 2221 Ninth St. SW, with changing and saving his life.

Baldwin's story is one that needs to be shared, said the Rev. Ben Kariuki, Total Living's executive director.

"I feel like bad stories are the ones that get a lot of attention," he said. "We have good stories, stories that can inspire people to change in positive way, and I feel like Charley's story can help. I've seen the impact he has had on his friends. They're starting to realize there's something very different about him."

Baldwin, a native of Youngstown, grew up on southeast Canton's Highland Park/Skyline Terrace apartment complex. As a teenager, he drifted into drugs and crime, becoming one of the founders of a gang known as the Rated-R Boys.

An assault conviction landed him in the Indian River juvenile prison in Massillon.

"At the same time I should have been graduating from high school, I was in Indian River," he said. "I got my GED at Indian River. I was spoiled. It was blessing in disguise since I was from the area."

Charley Baldwin's take on drugs: "An elephant can't sell peanuts"

Baldwin said upon his release, he plunged into selling and taking crack cocaine.

"But an elephant can't sell peanuts," he said with a smile. "I lost that battle, trying to be a seller and a user at the same time. I got heavily involved with drugs and the stuff that comes with the territory of trying to maintain and getting high. Stealing, lying, all those things."

His addiction consumed decades of his life.

Baldwin said that although he thought he had "hit a wall" in the past, real change came after a chance encounter last year with Kariuki outside of the convenience store.

"I live right down the street, so I had been coming here (mission) on and off to eat and whatever," he said. "I didn't know that it would change my life."

Baldwin was unaware that Kariuki had succeeded Don Bartow as executive director of the ministry in 2022. Bartow, who launched the mission in 1991 with virtually no funds, died in February 2022 at age 93.

"I didn't know that a Black man had become the director," he said. "He was passing out flyers. I was so used to people in power, not dealing with the likes of me. So, the fact that he was walking around the neighborhood intrigued me. I liked the fact that an African American man was walking around the neighborhood, trying to make a difference. I wanted to be part of that, but I didn't know how."

Baldwin, who started volunteering at the Total Living Center, said he grew up going to church, mostly at his mother's insistence.

"My mother wasn't a Christian but she made me go to church," he said. "So I was introduced to God at an early age."

Baldwin's volunteer efforts were no match for his addictions.

"I fell back into addiction really heavy, so I stopped coming here," he said. "I was ashamed to come back."

Those addictions led to a medical crisis when he had to undergo a leg amputation because of blood clots, a condition he blames on a combination of heart problems and crack cocaine.

Last December, Baldwin fell into more trouble when he was arrested for shoplifting. Canton Municipal Court Judge John Poulos sentenced Baldwin to 100 hours of community service, which he reduced to 50.

"He asked me, 'Are you able to do community service?' I told him yes, and he asked me, 'Have you heard of the Total Living Center?' I just looked at my wife," Baldwin recalled with a laugh.

Baldwin finished his community service in three weeks and hasn't stopped.

Total Living Center's life-skills academy

He enrolled in January in the Total Living Center Academy, a year-long life-skills program. A new class starts in January.

"We have a process in place for people who want to change their lives," Kariuki said. "Freedom from drug addictions and habits that have kept them in cycles for years; cycles of poverty, cycles of violence. It's called an academy for reason. It's something that will challenge you to change, and we do it in a community of loving people."

January, Baldwin said, is also the month that God answered his prayer to be delivered from his addictions.

"I knew I needed a greater power than myself," he said. "I had never really totally committed myself to God. I wanted to change my life because I had a whole bunch of addictions. I wasn't just an addict. I was a liar, a cheater. I know change is possible, but I also had to put in the footwork. I changed some behaviors."

Baldwin said he's found positive friendships at the mission.

He said he still visits the neighborhood convenience store, but only to say hello to a friend who works there before heading off to the Total Living Center, where he leads morning devotions for the staff and prayer prior to lunch.

"I think the biggest impact has been on my family and my mom," he said. "You know, you can fool other people but you can't fool your mom. My mom is starting to breathe. I think sometimes when I call, she's still waiting to hear bad news. She saw me let her down so many times."

Baldwin recently attended a Christian conference in Virginia, and he brought back his nametag as a keepsake for his mother.

Baldwin said he and his wife, Robin, married after he underwent his second leg amputation.

"She always believed in me; she saw something in me. I used to ask her like, 'Man, what do you see in me?' for a lot of reasons. For one, my behavior, and for two, my situation of being in a wheelchair... I never thought I'd be married."

Kariuki said Baldwin's experience shows that change can happen for anyone.

"What has happened in Charley shows that is possible," he said. "We're known for free food, the free laundry and chiropractic services and the grocery distribution which is good, because the community needs it. But at the same time, there's something much greater."

Baldwin wants others to know help and change are available at the Total Living Center. To learn more the agency's programs, call 330-455-3663 or visit the website.

Baldwin's life isn't perfect. Currently, he's using a borrowed electric wheelchair as he wrangles with an insurance company. But compared to his past, he couldn't be happier.

"I can't even put into words what this path has done for my life," he said. "I got baptized in April. I got married here on Sept. 30. People just think this is somewhere you can get a meal but it changes lives."

Reach Charita at 330-580-8313 or charita.goshay@cantonrep.com

On Twitter: @cgoshayREP

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Canton man grateful for turning life around at Total Living Center