God's Ambassador to the Streets...
Elder Tyrone C. Johnson, Sr.
Biographical Sketch
Elder Tyrone C. Johnson, Sr. affectionately known as “God’s Ambassador to the Streets,” was born on February 25, 1956 to Eugene and Mary Elizabeth Johnson (deceased) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He received his primary education in Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware. He graduated from P.S. duPont High School in Wilmington before entering the United States Army in the Signal Company, Fifth Special Forces group in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
After an honorable discharge from the Army, Elder Ty enrolled in Central Carolina Technical College where he received a diploma in Radio/Television Broadcasting. After working at several radio stations, he became one of North Carolina’s premiere radio announcer and account executive
In 1990, Elder Ty returned to Wilmington where he founded his first non-profit organization, M&MT Productions, where a group of young men began to address the problem of substance abuse amongst youth by introducing therapeutic drama through local community centers. The group went on to introduce comedy to Delaware through its “Comedy Slam Jam” programs which featured comedians from Russell Simmons’ HBO Comedy Show. M&MT organized the first Peace on the Streets march and rally in Wilmington in collaboration with the City of Wilmington, several churches, organizations, and youth groups where over 4,000 attended at Rodney Square.
In 1991 Elder Johnson gave his life to Christ.
At this time he became a member of the Eighth Street Baptist Church
where he grew both spiritually and professionally. As a spin-off of his work with M&MT Productions, Elder Ty was
requested by Pastor Christopher A. Bullock to coordinate the Outreach Ministry
effort at Eighth Street Baptist Church.
In 1994, Elder Ty founded Churches Take A Corner (CTAC), a holistic, community-based street ministry geared towards mobilizing faith-based congregations to save souls while helping people to move from drug and alcohol addictions and violence, to Christ. This ministry has grown over the past thirteen years and now provides the following programs to communities in need: 1) Street Invasions on drug-infested corners; 2) the Transitional Housing program; 3) the Restoration through Spiritual Development (RSD) Program which is dedicated to helping men and women who are making the transition from prison to their re-entry into larger society; 4) the Intensive Outpatient Program, a DE state licensed program responds to adult needs for drug and alcohol treatment and intervention; and 5) the Alpha Program, a mentoring program for children with incarcerated parents.
In
1997, Elder Ty decided to answer his call to God’s Ministry. On September 24, 1997 he delivered his first
sermon titled “Blessed And Highly Favored To Win” at Eighth Street Baptist
Church. At this time, the members of
Eighth Street Baptist Church unanimously voted to award him his official
License to Preach the Gospel Ministry.
Elder Ty has been in uninterrupted recovery from drug addiction for seventeen years and is a very spirited, honest, and hardworking member of the Wilmington community. Elder Ty and his family joined Bishop Aretha Morton and the Tabernacle Full Gospel Baptist Church family in 2001 where he is a member of Bishop Gregory M. Davis’s episcopal team and leads the Men’s Ministry, Evangelism Team, and Married Couples Ministry. He has been the recipient of many awards including the Governor’s Outstanding Volunteer Award. Elder Ty has served on many committees and boards, most notably the Governor’s Council on Corrections for the past 5 years to impact change within the State Correctional System, Alfred I. DuPont Hospital For Children Ethics Committee, and the Coalition to Build a Safer Community which studied the root causes of violence in the City of Wilmington, leading to the development of the Wilmington Hope Commission.
Elder Ty is a revered leader by the people in the general Wilmington community and throughout the State of Delaware. His mentors include preachers, politicians, community activists, and elders in the community.
Elder Ty is married to Lisa M. B. Johnson and has four children, Neva, Antione, TyLisa
and Tyrone, Jr.
Elder TYRONE C.
JOHNSON, SR.
LEADERSHIP INITIATIVES
2007
CTAC Alpha Project
successfully completed its 3-year grant with 120 mentors mentoring 143
children. The success of these efforts
assisted us in being funded for an additional three years.
Worked to coordinate
efforts between Professional Counseling Resources (PCR) and the Interdenominational
Ministers Action Council to secure a $700,000 sexual abstinence grant.
In partnership with the
Riverfront Development Corporation we continue to provide employment for
individuals who are transitioning from prison, or in recovery from Drug and
Alcohol abuse.
Advocating for inmates and
their families to insure that justice and harmony prevails in our community.
2006
Worked with the Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League, TALK Associates, IMAC, CTAC, Stop the Violence Coalition, and Arthur Garrison of the Criminal Justice Council, to provide the preliminary work to create the Wilmington Hope Commission. This group examined three models that would help to eradicate gun violence in the City of Wilmington; the Harlem School Zone, the Boston, Yale Model, and the Ella J. Baker House, headed by Dr. Eugene Rivers.
Chaired the Political, Social Action, Justice Committee for IMAC.
Worked along with Roger Levy to establish ecumenical dialogue between faith leaders concerned about the spiritual health and well being of the State of Delaware.
Elder Ty met with Bureau Chief of Probation and Parole, Noreen Renard and Dr. Marlene Saunders, Chairperson of the Department of Social Work with Delaware State University about assembling a team for the purpose of conducting a two-day training on cultural sensitivity and empowerment for Probation and Parole Supervisors of the State of Delaware. This need was determined after several complaints from the community about officers of Probation and Parole and their insensitivity to the needs of some probationers. The community alerted several community leaders of cases where some officers were acting inappropriately; violating the rights of not only probationers, but their families.
After several individuals had overdosed and died as a direct result of Heroin laced with Fitenoyle, Elder Ty encouraged IMAC Pastors to call a press conference and to meet with Federal, State and Local authorities to remove this deadly drug from our communities.
Once work had concluded with the Coalition to Build a Safer Community, many faith leaders desired to continue to serve by working ecumenically providing a moral compass for our city and challenging congregations to meet needs and eradicate violence. Elder Ty helped to create and organize the Interfaith Coalition: Building Blocks for Wilmington, he co- chaired for the first year and a half. He now serves as a member of the Steering Committee.
2005
Served as 2nd
Vice president of the Interdenominational Ministers Action Council (IMAC).
Was the organizer for IMAC
to bring community organizations and concerned citizens together in response to
three homicides, in one week, in the City of Wilmington. As a result, the Coalition to Build a Safer
Community was formed.
In a joint effort between Professional Counseling Resources, Department of Corrections, CTAC, Inc. Delaware received a $1.2 million dollar grant from the Department of Health and Human Services to mentor children whose parents are incarcerated.
Created and co-chaired the Community Forum Meeting for Community Corrections working with several community leaders. Dr. Yvonne Williams, Marian Banks, Bernadette Winston, Elder Vincent Oliver, Councilman Jay Street, Imam Umar Hasan El and others. These were morning and evening meetings held around the city to focus on issues around Community Corrections within the Department of Corrections.
2004
Working with IMAC, under the leadership of Bishop Thomas Wesley Weeks Sr. to organize the Men on the Block (M.O.B.) program. This was an effort to identify a man on every block in the City of Wilmington accomplished by working with Civic Organizations, Planning Councils, and other Community Based Organizations we identified over 127 men who agreed to be block captains, in addition to signing a Memorandum of Agreement.
The CTAC Alpha Project, mentoring program for children who have parents incarcerated, was created. A joint collaboration between the Department of Health and Human Services, Professional Counseling Resources (PCR), Department of Corrections, local Congregations and CTAC, Inc.
April 7, 2003
Attended and participated in the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) Community-Based Organization and Technical Assistance National Conference sponsored by Masi Max Resources, Inc. This conference was design to train Community Based CEO’s to better manage, grow, and sustain their organizations. One hundred and forty (140) organizations qualified for this training, however, only thirty-seven were chosen and two in the Nation were Faith-Based - Churches Take A Corner (CTAC) was one of the Two.
May 24, 2001
Penn Council for Relationships led discussions for clergy leaders from the African-American community from Philadelphia and Delaware around Cultural Competence as it pertains to Faith and Therapy. Stephen R. Treat, Director and CEO.
January 1998 – January 2000
First Vice President, Interdenominational Ministers
Action Council (IMAC), Wilmington, Delaware.
Worked with president to organize the Three Thousand Man Rally, The Three Thousand Family Rally, and successfully negotiated with the Department of Corrections to deploy the largest group of ministers and volunteers into Delaware Prisons for the purposes of ministry outreach; Increased IMAC membership and participation by fifty percent.
June 28, 1998
Created the Singing
Preacher’s Non-denominational Event – Delaware’s first event that challenged Pastors
to come together in an interfaith activity.
Pastors who could sing were requested to sing at Wilmington’s Grand
Opera House with their church choirs.
Twelve Pastors from all denominations including, Baptist, Catholic,
Methodist, Presbyterian, Apostolic, Episcopalian, Methodist and many others
participated and helped to make this event a huge success. Singing Preachers was held at the Luxurious
Grand Opera House and was a sold out event.
It was the first time Clergy came together to sing to the glory of God
to fight crime and gun violence.
May 14, 1997
Challenged the Delaware
Council on Correction to include the community of faith in its drug treatment
programs and create preventive strategies that would reduce the rate of
recidivism; Began with an ecumenical approach to mentoring, connecting those
who were incarcerated to spiritual sponsoring institutions; and Founded CTAC –
Restoration through Spiritual Development (RSD) Program.
September 2, 1996
Founded committee for City-wide violence prevention and drug intervention activity labeled “Peace on Our Streets” and developed a Franchise Statement “No Bangin’ Just Hangin with God” where a week of activities was coordinated with Institutions of Faith, the New Castle County, and The City of Wilmington. The week challenged young and old to State of Delaware, Service Organizations, Corporations, Community Based Organizations, abstain from immoral and anti-social behavior - it culminated with a Gospel Concert at the end of the seven days. Concerts were held in the public housing area commonly referred to as the Bucket at the Brown Burton Winchester Park. Every year we invited different guest gospel artists including Yolanda Adams, John P. Kee, The Williams Brothers, James Bolton, Hezekiah Walker, Commission, The Wilmington Chester Mass Choir, Russell Delegation and many others. God ultimately transformed that Community into what has become The Village of Eastlake, which is now a community of affordable town homes, No one has gotten Shot, or died in the New Community.
March 16, 1996
Organized the first Substance Abuse Awareness Seminar at the historic Eighth Street Baptist Church (ESBC) - the first faith-based seminar held in the city of Wilmington; Created the drug outreach ministry under the leadership of Dr. Christopher A. Bullock; Placed congregation members and non-members who were struggling with Drug and Alcohol addiction into treatment at no cost to them or the church; Co-labored with Deacon James Manley at ESBC to establish the Eighth Street “Teen Challenge Program”; and Organized the first collaborative Anti- Drug march from three parts of the city of Wilmington culminating at Rodney Square, more than four thousand kids were in attendance.
June 1994
While working with the Northeast Substance Abuse and Family Education program (NSAFE) located in the Public Housing Development called Riverside, I created the youth component that was designed to curb youth violence and to help youth in at-risk situations. The program taught the 3 A’s - Awareness, Attitude and Action. Youth also participated in individual and group sessions where they were challenge to seek alternative solutions to violence. Conflict resolution and mediation was also taught by having youth role-play. These techniques were eventually adopted by Brandywine Counseling, Inc., a substance abuse treatment agency. The unique part about this program is that it was God centered.
Working as a consultant for the Christina Cultural Arts Center we created alternative spiritual activities for the New Castle County Detention Center Youth who had not yet been sentenced. We formed and trained a special team that could speak to the youth to rekindle, or establish hope based on the love of Christ. These sessions were well attended and life altering.
Assisted in conducting the first Faith-Based workshop for Delaware’s Office of Prevention and Early Intervention under the Department of Services for Children, Youth and their Families. The success of this workshop earned a permanent position at the Annual Prevention and Early Intervention Forum. Our commitment was to present and to designate two other presenters.
10/2007