Verlena Stewart, who has served side-by-side with Maney since CBI was founded in 2011, has been named executive director. She will assume her new role on March 16.
Maney, 59, has accepted a position as a non-profit consultant and grant writer for the Elemental Group, a Cincinnati-based consulting agency that helps not-for-profits launch, scale, become grant-ready, and develop a grant funding plan.
A six-year breast cancer survivor, Maney said the job will give her more time with her husband, Chuck, a kidney transplant recipient, and allow her to continue working remotely with non-profits.
“It’s time I honor my body and work when I want to,” she said.
Under Maney’s leadership, CBI has transformed from a small start-up with a $125,000 budget to a thriving non-profit with a $1.8 million budget. What started with three part-time employees, Maney, Stewart and Marie Edwards, CBI has grown to 35 employees, 15 full-time and 20 part-time.
Maney said CBI has become a trusted provider of services and resources in early education, workforce development, after-school, and summer camp programming and has helped thousands of families and youth in the Middletown community.
She said CBI offers after-school programs in every Middletown school and at two other sites.
“I’m exceptionally proud of the work we have done as a team,” Maney said.
Maney said having Stewart lead the team made it “easier to walk away” because she knows Stewart will continue growing CBI and impacting the community.
Stewart was instrumental in creating the Parent Resource Center, CBI’s first program. Before joining CBI, Stewart oversaw the Robert “Sonny” Hill Jr. Community Center operations as director of community services at the city of Middletown.
She is also a member of the Middletown City School Board of Education and its representative for the Butler Tech Board of Education.
Stewart called CBI “an organization of excellence.”
Robie Suggs, CBI board president, said promoting Stewart will “bring the needed continuity, and we have immense trust in her to lead the organization.”
Maney is leaving during one of the most exciting times in the history of the community center. CBI is the operator of the community center and is a part of the planning committee leading the upcoming $10 million renovation and expansion, which is scheduled to be started this summer.
The expanded center has the potential to be “transformational” for the community by providing a safe place for youth to come after school, she said. The center, she said, may include seven Head Start classrooms, culinary kitchen to help develop food businesses, a full size basketball court and possibly baseball diamonds in the back of the property.
“This can be the cornerstone for recreation,” she said.
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