Vision:

To raise the educational, entrepreneurship and employment levels of underserved communities across the country through advocacy empowerment principles.

Mission:

To teach underserved Nashville communities to shape their destinies through hands-on education, entrepreneurship and employment principles.

 

            “Disadvantaged young people are at higher risk of marginalization and social exclusion than other youth.  Recent figures demonstrate that the 15-14 year-old cohort faces higher risk of working poverty than other adults”  (International Labour Office, 2011, P5).

 

 NeighborHOOD (HOOD, an acronym for Hands on Our Destinies) is a non-profit organization through which students in underserved communities learn to use education, entrepreneurship and employment advocacy principles to change the face of their communities.  The organization hopes to change the negative statistics outlook for disadvantaged youths by enrolling them in a one-year program that teaches the following courses:

 

1. NeighborHOOD – its structures and implications

2. Business ownership and employment

3. Financial independence

 

The community (organizations, churches and schools) will send applicants to NeighborHOOD for education and training.  Upon graduation, students will become owners of a cooperative or community-business.  The community will become a buyer, creating an expanding perpetual cycle as more people are educated, become owners, are employed, produce goods, then sell them back to the community.

 

The literary, visual and performing arts will be used as backdrops for healing/uniting the community.

 

Each participant will give back to NeighborHOOD by volunteering their time and talent to support the organization’s programs.  Volunteering will:

 

1. Encourage a sense of belonging and unity in the community.

2. Teach reciprocity.

3. Illustrate to supporters the compelling interest of the community.

 

“Cooperatives and community-owned enterprises are mechanisms for community economic development, because they provide jobs and business ownership for community members, re-circulate resources within their communities, promote environmental sustainability and social responsibility, and develop economic, human, and social capital” (Nembhard, 2013, p. 1).