Community & Neighborhood
Martha O'Bryan Center Applies for Promise Neighborhood Grant
What is your promise, Nashville?
What is your vision of a Promise Neighborhood? What is your promise to make that vision a reality? Let us know and we'll publish your responses on this page.
The Obama Administration has followed through on campaign promises to replicate the success of the acclaimed Harlem Children’s Zone in New York City, which provides a full network of services to entire needy neighborhoods from birth to college. The result is the federal Promise Neighborhood program – a bold new initiative to break the cycle of generational poverty by improving the educational outcomes and overall life prospects of low-income children and their families.
Twenty Promise Neighborhood planning grants will be awarded in neighborhoods that have high levels of poverty and crime, and low levels of student academic achievement, in cities across the nation. The awards are expected to be announced this September. Martha O'Bryan Center has applied for the planning grant.
All of Martha O'Bryan Center's programs work together to help Nashville’s most vulnerable families attain self-sufficiency, following each child from cradle to college to career. The Center's Highway of Services (aka continuum) includes the Tied Together parenting initiative, Early Learning Center, Pre-K School, East End Preparatory Charter School, THRIVE Youth Development, reading and math tutoring, NAZA out of school alliance, THRIVE @ College, Family Employment, and Community Outreach.
Our residents' average annual income falls under $5,000, making it one of the country’s most distressed communities anywhere. Today, in Nashville, government, school administration and the teachers union are speaking with one voice – we will reform schools, we will invest in quality teaching, we will invest in parenting education and we will engage and inspire our young people. Martha O'Bryan is honored to lead this effort to transform Nashville's poorest neighborhoods.
