It's not unusual for former students to approach Larchmere resident Joe Golden on the street and tell him how much they enjoyed taking his classes. The 60-year-old Cleveland resident has been teaching martial arts out of The Golden School of Urban Self-Defense -- a dojo located in his basement -- for several decades now.

"In the black community, there are a lot of young people who don't have any dads in the house," says Golden. "They're missing a key component for growing up: a male role model. We go in and be that role model for them. We're their dad."

Golden stresses that he teaches people "where they're at" and that his classes are not solely about self-defense, but also about building stamina, endurance, determination and self-confidence to succeed in adverse conditions.

Now that he's retired, Golden teaches classes full-time out of his home and also at Elizabeth Baptist Church, which is located in the former St. Hyacinth Church in Slavic Village. "Kids used to play basketball on our property, and we didn't want that, so instead we opened a gym. Soon, we had 50 to 60 kids in there everyday."

In the long term, Golden's dream is to open up a small storefront on Larchmere Boulevard where he can offer additional self-defense classes to the community.

Source: Joe Golden
Writer: Lee Chilcote