How it all began...

The Southeast Youth Council, Inc. was founded in March of 2000 by three individuals. Those individuals with their prospective jobs at that time were Pastor Sandy Knepple, Pastor, Monroeville United Methodist Church; Evelyn Wilson, Pastor's Wife, Monroeville Church of the Nazarene; Kent Castleman, Coordinator of Youth Ministry, St. Rose Catholic Church. Beginning as three strangers, these three worked for three months before approaching other local churches to become involved in the planning committee.

Upon accepting the invitation, five regular attending other adults and two youth, helped form what at the time became formally known as The Monroeville Youth Center Council. The five adults were Roy Hosfield, Willa Kline, Sandy Klinker, Kathy Lepper and Irene Myers. The two youth were Joe Bauman and Glyndissa Wilson. Several other individuals came and went from the committee, but the overwhelming task of development was mainly handled by these key individuals and the founders. This group of people would become known as the founding board and without their hard work and efforts, TSYC would not exist today.

Officially incorporated in October 2000, the board then moved on to complete paper work for their 501(c)3 non-profit status with the state of Indiana in late February 2001. Hearing that this would take months to receive, the board anxiously continued planning what the future would become and activities for the youth. To their surprise, the non-profit status was granted in April 2001, just a little over 30 days from admittance. With non-profit status, the board could then begin to receive funding and support from foundations and other individuals without tax liability and any donation could be receipted for write-off purposes.

While the group continued to work for all of Southeast Allen County, they continued to struggle as to how to get more at-large membership on the board. To aid in the development of the board, the members felt a name change was needed. To serve all of Southeast Allen County, but to remain The Monroeville Youth Center Council, seemed limiting. Therefore, in November of 2001, the council filed for a name change to become The Southeast Youth Council, Inc. The name change was granted in February 2002.

The mission and vision of the board has remained strong since inception: to serve the 7-12 grade youth of Southeast Allen County with education, recreational, and spiritual activities for their healthy growth and development. Through this mission the board spent from March 2000 to the summer of 2001 working on organizational policies and procedures as well as programming. Without a physical location, the group struggled to hold activities, but continued to plan and develop models of what could work in the future.

During the spring of 2001, the group became confident about their mission and vision and held an information gathering meeting for the community to share it. At that meeting, the board introduced what our mission and vision was for the organization and unveiled a capital campaign for $60,000 to purchase the old Clem Hardware building. During this time period, they received numerous funds from individuals and several foundations in Allen County, but could not leverage enough support to purchase the building. During this time period, an emblem with the thumbs up logo with the words "Count Me In" could be seen throughout the area. This logo gave energy and hope to the failing campaign, but would prove to help the board continue to gain community support. During the capital campaign, the board continued to look at programming and decided that it was time to at least start holding events/activities, even if they did not have a facility. They had mixed emotions about using church basements, because the group worried about youth from other churches and the wider community wanting to come to churches for events. To inaugurate the start of programming, the group decided to hold a concert in the park with free food and music. This event became known as Youthfest '01. The event took place on September 22, 2001 at the Monroeville Community Park.

At this time, the board also felt that it was time for the hiring of an executive director to help move the organization forward. Kent Castleman would officially be given his first payroll check in February 2002.

Having a pool of money, many programming ideas and an executive director, the group would struggle to find a location that could even be rented in the area. They were open to locating in either Monroeville or Hoagland, if an affordable building would open up to rent. That opportunity came in March 2002 when Bob Hall, owner of the Monroeville Do it Best Hardware, would agree to rent the old showroom and workroom of the original Monroeville Lumber company to the organization.

With a small group of dedicated adults and youth, the building would transform from a dirty workshop full of sawdust and building materials to a functioning space for youth to gather. Through March and April, the group painted, carpeted and retrofitted the building for the youth of the community. The center would officially open its doors on May 7, 2002. Glyndissa Wilson would become the first official member of the center.

The facility has been retrofitted and redecorated several times over the years. The most recent project was in the Fall of 2006, when the council took on a renovation project to create an outdoor activity area. The old Monroeville Lumber Company Lumber rack was torn down and the area would be renovated by volunteers and local contractors along with support from various foundations and businesses over the next two and half years. A ribbon cutting was held on November 5, 2008 to celebrate the newly created space fit with a basketball court, storage building, outdoor stage, grass area for volleyball and other sports. A campfire pit is scheduled to be created in the near future.

 Today, Cornerstone has embarked upon a new path with Building Futures Capital Campaign. The projected started in 2009 with a look at current facility needs and improvements and was celebrated with a ribbon cutting ceremony on February 20, 2011 at the new facility at 19819 Monroeville Rd., Monroeville, IN 46773. The future of programming will be vastly improved by the new facilities that boasts 8,000 square feet, larger program areas for education, drug/alcohol prevention, and postive youth development.