About Us
Exceptional Youth, Strong Families, Full Lives
We are here to serve. Each life inspired or empowered at the Martha O’Bryan Center begins with a relationship with someone in the Martha O’Bryan Center family that has at its core, love and acceptance.
We serve whole families. The greatest success is possible only when we focus on the strengths of the families we serve and understand that each family member impacts the health, well-being and success of the entire family.
There is no “golden key” to defeating poverty, but education is our greatest, most powerful tool. Our work demonstrates every day that all young people want success, will work for it and can achieve if held to high standards and given access to committed adult leaders who will walk with them from the isolation of poverty into the broader world of college and careers
Martha O'Bryan Center is located in James A. Cayce Homes, Nashville's largest public housing development, in east Nashville. We serve metro residents primarily from east and north Nashville with our core neighborhoods being the 720 homes of Cayce Homes, the public housing (cottages and high rise) for the elderly across Shelby Avenue, the CWA (Section 8) apartments, historic Edgefield and surrounding walk zone.
We served well over 3,700 people in fiscal year 2008-2009, some of which received services everyday in more than one program area (education, work and crisis).
Lower east Nashville:
- 48% African American (37206 ZIP code)
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6% Hispanic
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Large refugee population – Somali and Somali-Bantu
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16% of population under the age of 11 years old
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600 5 year olds in catchment area (Maplewood and Stratford High Clusters)
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32% of adults have less than a high school education with another 27% with only a high school education (37206)
James A. Cayce Homes:
Current census numbers confirm Martha O’Bryan Center serves Nashville’s largest community of families who currently live below the national poverty level.
More than 2,400 residents officially live in James A. Cayce Homes. Of these residents:
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50% are children and youth
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90% households are headed by a single female
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85% of Cayce residents receive some form of public assistance
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Even among public housing communities in Nashville, Cayce is the largest concentration of the poorest families in Nashville.
- Average household incomes in our community are less than $5,000 a year --- well below the national poverty level of $17,000 for a family of three.
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Cayce Homes and surrounding area have been identified as one of the four highest crime neighborhoods in metro Nashville. Example: Cayce has 4 times the aggravated assaults per 1,000 persons than Davidson County and over twice the burglaries.
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Cayce and lower east Nashville is one of four designated food deserts.
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90% of the children attending the neighborhood schools that surround Cayce Homes live well below the national poverty level. (reduced or free lunch status)
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44% of adults in our community lack a high school diploma as compared to 24% of all persons living in Tennessee (Census 2000, Heros-Inc.)
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The Cayce area has twice the annual arrests per 1000 residents compared to countywide statistics (2002 Uniform Crime Report data)
- 50% of the third graders at Kirkpatrick Elementary School cannot read at grade level
- The out-of-school suspension rates are currently 31.8% at Dalewood Middle School and 35.6% at Stratford High School
- Median drop out rate over the past three years is 29.3% for youth attending Stratford since 1999.
The majority of our children and youth attend school in the STRATFORD Cluster, which includes these schools:
Kirkpatrick Elementary (PK-4), Bailey Middle (5-8), Stratford High School, Warner Elementary (K-4); and KIPP Academy: Nashville
