Karate and kids go well together! In the western hemisphere the term karate is often used to describe any form of martial art. Strictly speaking though, karate is a type of martial art native to Okinawa. There are many popular martial arts from other places too, like Chinese Tai Chi and Qi Gong, Korean Tae Kwon Do and Hapkido, as well as Japanese Judo and Jiu Jitsu. Both Tae Kwon Do and Judo are official Olympic sports, so devoted students could become Olympic medal winners one day!

Bullied no more

Bullying is a fact of life for many kids. If they feel threatened and cannot confidently speak up for themselves, they may get upset.

When someone learns martial arts, they build self-confidence and recognize that it is the bully that is weak and not themselves. Knowing how to safely defend against attack and respond with appropriate levels of physical resistance with martial arts techniques eliminates bullying. Now, your kid can focus on what youth is for: learning and making friends!

Getting physically fit

Children have abundant energy. However, addictive touch-screen devices have captured their attention. Now, too much free time is spent stagnantly absorbing dopamine instead of playing outside like their parents and grandparents did when they were young. Children’s health is paying the price for this shift from active to passive.

Childhood obesity rates have climbed steadily upward in recent years. Moderate physical activity, like martial arts, burns off excess fat, and exercise naturally suppresses appetite!

Making friends

Spending time together is a great method for building lasting relationships! Attending martial arts classes gives kids opportunities to meet other kids that may go to different schools or live in different neighborhoods. Now, with martial arts, they have something in common from which to build friendships.

They can practice together at each other’s houses on the days they do not attend class. For children of the same age, this practice time can be easily extended into helping one another with homework. Does your kid or grandkid need a new friend? Martial arts might be how they do it. My daughter met her husband that way!

Setting and reaching goals

Good things take time to build. Martial art belt ranking systems give kids a tangible sign of success! I remember when I was a white belt – a beginner – and what it took for me to earn a yellow belt in Tae Kwon Do. It helped me to understand what it took to study something and excel at it. Each block, kick, and strike reinforces self-discipline and creates the state of mind needed to learn and focus for an extended period of time in order to reach a goal. This skill is transferable to other areas later in life, like graduating college.

Learning good behavior

Many martial art schools participate in intramural and/or open tournaments. This offers kids the chance to showcase their skills in a public setting. They learn that not everyone wins every time, but if they stick with it, they too can earn a trophy or a medal. It demonstrates that someone’s victory is not necessarily someone else’s defeat. Shortly after I earned my blue belt, I competed in an open tournament sponsored by my home karate school. I won second place in free sparring (fighting) and third place in form patterns (an orchestrated series of moves). The competitors that outperformed me earned their trophies. I was good. They were better. And that was okay. I was happy for them and for myself.

Spending quality time with family

I have spent thousands of hours practicing martial arts in my lifetime. Hundreds of those hours were spent with family: two of my brothers, both of my parents, my wife, our three kids, and one of my nephews. Four of my family members earned their black belts! I am thankful to my brother for introducing me to Tae Kwon Do, and to my parents for paying for it, when I was fourteen years old. It became a healthy and wholesome lifelong interest. I went on to earn a 4th degree black belt, eventually opening a Tae Kwon Do school with my wife, a 3rd degree black belt in her own right. We spent many an evening or Saturday morning participating in class together. It was time well-spent! Maybe there are members of your family that you would like to learn martial arts with?

How to get started

Begin by watching a class or two at a local martial arts school. Local options include the Allen’s American Martial Arts or the YMCA of Greater Toledo. The reputable schools allow potential new students to watch before they sign up. Some schools may provide the first lesson for free. Be wary of paying up front for a “black belt program” as only about 10% of students study long enough to get their money’s worth and earn a black belt. Then, consider how much time is available. To learn martial arts effectively, it takes at least two classes per week over several months, perhaps years. I attended 90-minute classes 3-4 times a week for a year to earn my first black belt. My brothers, wife, and nephew did the same.

Costs and caveats 

Beware that there are hidden fees when it comes to studying martial arts! Yes, there is the monthly charge which can be $50-$200 per month, per person, and require signing a lengthy contract. There are also the costs of uniforms, belt tests, tournaments, seminars, and optional private lessons or special classes (e.g., weapons). These add up quickly to hundreds of dollars, per person. Shop around before you sign a contract!

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Tae Kwon Do is the best activity I have ever done! It gave me confidence and helped me build strength and character, and those are valuable lifelong skills. Give martial arts a try today with your friends or family. It just might become your favorite activity too!

By Kendall Crawford The Ohio Newsroom

(Published September 30, 2026 at 5:00 AM EDT)

The federal government will pay less to help Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs run starting on Thursday.

Historically, SNAP administrative costs have been shared by the federal government and the state. But, under the Trump administration’s HR1, or “One Big Beautiful Bill,” the portion the federal government covers will go down.

On Oct. 1, the federal government will cover 25% of administrative costs, rather than 50%.

Around 1.4 million Ohioans are enrolled in the program that provides low-income people monthly funds for groceries.

Ohio is estimated to have an immediate loss of around $38 million. Those funds are distributed to county Jobs and Family Services departments, which manage SNAP locally.

Metro areas face largest gaps

To prepare for these losses, the Ohio legislature budgeted a bit more for administrative needs, allocating around $12.5 million in March to offset counties’ losses.

In the past, the state used the number of caseloads and county poverty levels to determine how much each county gets. This time around, the legislature decided to split the funds equally among counties. Each county will receive $226,486, or – if a county lost less than that – the amount it takes to fill their gap.

Under this system, 59 counties’ budgets will be made whole again. But many of the state’s metro counties, which have bigger SNAP caseloads, will have to replace millions of dollars.

Cuyahoga County will face the largest gap, losing an estimated $7 million.

Republican lawmakers argued that these metro counties have enough in their general funds to step in, while rural counties did not.

“The bill treats all counties equally,” Rep. Brian Stewart (R-Ashville) said on the House floor in March. “These largest counties we are clutching pearls over have the money.”

Potential impact 

In Lucas County, where Toledo is, administrators say they are grappling with around a $2.5 million loss.

JFS Director Breda Osburn said it won’t be easy to replace, since the county’s funding is siloed and inflexible. Osburn and her staff don’t have the ability to move funding from programs that may be utilized less and funnel it to SNAP, which has around 69,000 participants.

Lucas County commissioners have stepped up to fill the gap this year. But, with rising costs, Osburn said that likely won’t be sustainable in the long-term.

She said the only significant way to shrink the JFS budget would be to cut staff.

“That would create much longer turnaround times for eligibility processing. It would create much longer wait times on the phones,” Osburn said. “It would also very likely drive up errors in the determination of benefit amounts.”

More changes ahead

The administrative cost shift is just one of the changes to SNAP under HR1. There are also added work requirements and changes to eligibility based on immigration status.

Starting next year, the state will be evaluated on its error rate, which tracks when a household receives either an overpayment or an underpayment of $57 or more.

If Ohio has an error rate of 6% or higher, then the state will have to pay a portion of the SNAP benefits themselves, which have typically been completely covered by the federal government.

In 2024, the state’s error rate was around 9%. Last year, the state’s error rate was just over 6%. If it were to remain at that level next year, Ohio would have to pay for 5% of benefit costs, which could add up to around $161 million, according to the Health Policy Institute of Ohio.

Osburn said the state reviews only a small fraction of cases to calculate the error rate, which she believes it’s not representative of the accuracy of the program.

“It’s really luck of the draw,” she said.

The Ohio Newsroom is a nonprofit dedicated to serving Ohio’s news deserts. Learn more at ohionewsroom.org.

There are programs defined by what they offer, and then there are programs shaped around the exceptional people who lead them. Anthony Guinn Jr.’s Lead the Way Initiative belongs to the latter.

Established in 2013, the Lead the Way initiative is a youth program focusing on giving young people a safe and supportive environment where they can build confidence, learn accountability, develop leadership skills and be exposed to opportunities beyond what they may encounter in their everyday lives. It’s a behavioral and mental health after-school and summer program that works predominantly with youth aged from 5 to 17 but extends up to age 21.

“Lead the Way bridges the gap between families who might have a single mom or single dad because it’s take a village to raise to raise a kid,” shares Anthony Guinn Jr., the director of the program.

Guinn, 41, was born and raised in Toledo, so this mission is very near to him. “How I grew up in the urban community was basically just being a follower, just adapting to my environment,” Guinn explained. “There was a lot of gang violence and drug dealing, so, with my background, I just don’t like to see young men and young women going down that path.”

The program runs Monday through Thursday from around 3:30-7pm, but it doesn’t stop there. They provide one-on-one sessions seven days a week with kids in crisis, also offering support to the parents in that time, too. The programs provides other services such as transportation to and from school, feeding the families as needed, and teaching young people basic hygiene.

“I want to say 85% of our clients live in urban communities, so if I see an area over there that needs to be picked up, that’d be something that we do,” Guinn explained.

As far as engaging the larger community, Guinn and his staff have sponsored three football teams for the mid-city football league. Additionally, they feed the homeless once a month and carry out regular trash pick ups. “I also try to teach the kids during service work, I just let them see that [they could end up on the streets] at some point if they keep down the route they’re keep going and not caring and thinking life is a game.”

The Lead the Way Initiative doesn’t seem to have a definitive list of services offered; rather, Guinn and his team seem to constantly adapt their time and efforts to the needs of the community.

“My company is really just a support system, not only for the youth but also the parents the household. We have vouchers if there’s a hard time in life and the family needs some assistance, we can come up with a little money to help out,” shared Guinn. “That’s what Lead the Way is about. We’re not giving up, and my slogan is no child left behind.”

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Guinn highlighted the importance of giving kids access to the one-on-one sessions every day of the week, explaining that some of the young people might be embarrassed or shy participating in group settings, especially the older teenagers. “This isn’t just a program; this is your granny’s house, you know, this is where you go to to feel the love and the warmth, and that’s why we do services seven days a week. We just want to be supportive. The only thing we’re doing is bridging the gap.”

When asked about the impact of the program on the kids, Guinn lit up discussing the privilege of seeing their growth over the past thirteen years.

“Basically, I’ve just seen the growth, and the growth in me, too, not having a school background, just personal experience,” Guinn shared. “So, I actually grew with the kids. I’ve just seen how much opportunity they don’t understand they have. With Lead the Way, we want to give the kids that option, that outlook that you don’t have to sell drugs or kill to get the lifestyle that you want, like the nice cars or the flashy stuff, you can get it the honest way and become a dream chaser.”

Guinn has three children himself—one 22 year-old and a set of twins about to turn twelve—who strongly influence his work.

“When you’ve got your own kids, it’s different. Having a background where my father was absent and now getting to be a great father, I can understand what these kids are going through when they come to the program. And they’re not chasing their dreams because of the lack of support. So, I had to grow and mature and see things differently.”

Guinn’s dream is for community groups to work together for the betterment of the next generation. “My vision has always been that we all come as one,” he shared. “We all come as one with different entities, we’re all under the same umbrella of basically community service mentorship…We all just need to link up and become that chain of change. I envision that, and I send my hands out to every program from TPS schools to private schools, I send my hand out so we all work together to save our future—because these kids are our future.”

Brittani Hamilton, who works alongside Guinn, expressed just how inspirational a leader Guinn has been. “Anthony has dedicated his time to creating positive opportunities for youth in the Toledo community through mentorship, fitness, life skills, career development, and hands-on activities,” she shared. “What makes Anthony’s work special is his ability to connect with young people while providing the structure, encouragement and positive male leadership that many families are looking for in our community.”

The Lead the Way Initiative accepts drop-off donations at 3170 Central Ave. They also accept donations at their main office, 338 North Erie, located on the second floor of the building. You can learn more about the program, its mission, and how to donate at lead-theway.org.

“All we are is we that uncle you don’t have, that you’ve been missing. We are your dad if you don’t have one, your mom if you don’t have one,” Guinn said. “The Lead the Way Youth Initiative is here to stay.”