History of the Central Florida Dream Center In 1994 Paul and Jackie Benjamin felt the leading of the Lord and moved to the Orlando Florida area from Brooklyn New York. In January of 1996 in order to address the growing pandemic in our nation of over 24 million fatherless children, they founded Men In Action USA, which was later changed to Men, Women & Youth In Action USA, Inc. Their goal was to have a one-stop empowerment center where they can reach, teach, equip and place 10 million father figure mentors in the lives of fatherless children nationwide; first by teaching men how to be Godly men, husbands, fathers and then mentors to fatherless youth. Their goal was to give a hand-up (empower) not a hand-out (cripple and debilitate) to individuals, and families, empowering them to self-sufficiency. In 2001 they wanted to reach more families in Central Florida and beyond where they can expand the mentoring of men, women (single moms) and youth; they purchased the 46,000 SF building in the inner-city of Sanford and started the Central Florida Dream Center in 2002. |