“And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13
Located in the historic home church of respected evangelist Billy Graham, Grace Covenant Church of Charlotte, Faith, Hope, and Love (FHL) has been faithfully serving the needs of the South End community for over a decade. FHL offers inner-city children and families the unique opportunity to acquire a strong work ethic, a sense of personal responsibility, and an attitude of service to others and to obtain grade level through intimate mentorship and tutoring from one of 95 volunteers.
You may not be familiar with the name Child Care Resources Inc. (CCRI), but the organization has been a tireless force serving children and families in the Charlotte region for nearly forty years. Their singular mission? To provide access to high quality, affordable early learning and school-age opportunities for all children and workforce and child care program capacity building.
There's no better way to show the impact of Beds for Kids than these four words from a nine-year-old boy after his family's home was furnished by the Charlotte-based nonprofit.
We don't often think about the power of furniture, but the team at Beds for Kids knows that getting a bed, a couch, or a table is life changing. They know because they've seen it.
All children in Charlotte-Mecklenburg deserve the opportunity to shine, regardless of income, background, race or zip code. This is the fundamental idea on which Leading on Opportunity was founded.
After a 2014 Chetty study ranked Charlotte last among the top 50 cities in the US in terms of upward mobility, there was an intense desire to change the narrative for Charlotte- Mecklenburg and our children.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Opportunity Task Force dug into what factors truly make a difference in mobility and early care and education bubbled up as the single most important element. Leading on Opportunity was created to amplify the work of this task force by sharing its findings and actively working in the community to mobilize resources and implement community-driven response.
Being a parent is difficult. It’s difficult when you’re a two-parent family with lots of support. And it’s even more difficult when you’re a single parent.
Philips Academy is unlike any school in the Charlotte area.
Philips Academy serves both middle and high school students with complex learning disabilities, cognitive disabilities, and autism through their life-centered approach to education that is both remedial and practical. Their approach is backed up by the impressive statistic that 95% of graduates from their program are working, volunteering, or pursuing further education.
For Giving Tuesday 2018, Philips Academy connected their #GivingTuesdayCLT campaign to their annual Thanksgiving Feast and Turkey Trot. Students asked their family, friends, and neighbors to sponsor them, while the Academy encouraged the community to support their students as part of their Giving Tuesday campaign.
If you were one of the 400 YP’s that flooded the Brewers at 4001 Yancey last week as part of the 7th annual #YPMixerCLT, you know the magic that happened!
When you walk into any Freedom School location, the energy you feel is contagious. The rooms are filled with song and dance, passion, excitement, imagination, and loads of learning. It is definitely not your average summer program.
With 18 locations in Charlotte, Freedom School Partners provides high quality summer programming for scholars in grades K-8. They view education as a holistic experience and strive to support children academically, socially, and emotionally. Freedom School Partners also supports college students by allowing them to gain professional experience, serve as positive role models, and enter the teacher or social services pipeline.
For KIPP Charlotte, this is more than a motto. It's a simple yet powerful directive to focus on academics and character in equal measure. It's a reminder that education is a matter of the mind and the heart.
1980’s Charlotte = a building town. Construction workers moved here and built their lives in Charlotte, but no preschool was laying the foundation for Spanish-speaking children to enter Kindergarten. The need for Spanish-speaking families to access early childhood education was nonexistent before 1999 when SHARE Charlotte partner, Charlotte Bilingual Preschool (CltBP), opened their doors.
Every day, including the #52Tuesdays of the year, nearly 200 families seek help at Crisis Assistance Ministry. The independent non-profit agency has a 40+ year history and a noble mission: to provide assistance and advocacy for people in financial crisis, helping them move toward self-sufficiency.
Nearly every day, there is a story like William’s to tell.
Early child care and education are crucial to the emotional, social and even physical development of young children and have a direct effect on their overall development as an adult. According to The Center for Disease Control and Prevention, while our brains continue to develop and change well into adulthood, the first eight years build a foundation for future learning, health and life success.
Just last year, Mecklenburg County rolled out a new program MECK Pre-K which offers free pre-k education and care to eligible four year olds in the Charlotte area in response to a big push for free child care and education across the country and right here in our own city.
SHARE WITH US!
We have so much great news to share from our nonprofit partners about their amazing work. But, we'd love to hear from you. Let us know if you have stories you'd like to tell and we'll make you a guest blogger!!
