| Name | Timothy |
|---|---|
| Last Name | Mahla |
| Home Address | 844 W Shadowlawn Dr (Not Applicable) Chattanooga, TN 37404 United States |
| Organization Name | Hope For the Inner City |
| Describe Your Role In The Organization | I am the Director of Fund Development at Hope For the Inner City. I manage donor operations, solicit major gifts, and write grant requests for Hope For the Inner City. |
| Organization Address | 1800 Roanoke Ave (Not Applicable) Chattanooga, Tennessee 37406 United States |
| Website | https://hopefortheinnercity.org |
| Best Phone Number To Reach You | 4234246734 |
| Alternate Phone Number | |
| Email Address | timothy@hope4theinnercity.org |
| Alternate Email Address | anthony@hope4theinnercity.org |
| Please Describe Your Project In Detail | Summary Hope For the Inner City is seeking funding for capital infrastructure improvements to its building and grounds. Our building was constructed in 1959 by the Salvation Army and is in desperate need of a new roof which is absolutely priority #1. Water finds its way into our building each time it rains. Priority #2 is found behind our property. In partnership with City Farms Grower Coalition (CFGC), UTC, a community member from the Bayberry apartments, and a number of volunteers from around the city, we operate the Grow Hope Urban Farm. Grow Hope is a key programmatic component of our work at HFIC, providing fresh vegetables to our neighbors in East Chattanooga and to residents of Alton Park through our participation in the Bethlehem Center’s Saturday Market. Rainwater again is the major issue here and building out rainwater mitigation solutions are necessary for growing our capacity to serve our neighbors Additionally, a number of rooms inside our building, particularly in our dental clinic are in need of a complete renovation. Mission and Work Our mission is to engage, invest, and empower our neighbors to bring economic stability to our neighbors in East Chattanooga for the glory of God. Hope For The Inner City almost exclusively serves the 37404 and 37406 area codes of Chattanooga. We say ALMOST exclusively because we have people from North Georgia to Knoxville come to our dental clinic to receive no insurance dental services. We also work with some families outside of 37404 and 37406 through our Holiday Programs at year end. Additionally, some of the food produced at the Grow Hope Urban Farm is distributed through the Bethlehem Center's Farmers Market. Our crisis relief, food assistance, and Invest Hope programs all serve 37404 and 37406 exclusively. We imagine that the City of Chattanooga has more up to date information about the 37406 neighborhood than we do but the demographic data we've been working off of to understand the realities that face our closest neighbors (our address is 1800 Roanoke Ave in Avondale) are as follows: Approximately 2000 People 75% Black 25-44 Largest Age Cohort 50% of the Homes Built before 1939 50% of Residents Rent Their Homes Almost 30% without a Car 8% Unemployment Rate Almost 40% Poverty Rate The average monthly income of the individuals we've provided financial assistance to this year is $1166. The demographic makeup of the people we serve are almost exclusively over 40, unemployed, are living in poverty, and are African American. Our staff of 6 has one non-African American employee. 5 of our 6 staff members either live, or have grown up in the 37404/37406 area codes. Half of our Board of Directors are African Americans. We have a mix of volunteers from our community (all African American) and volunteers from outside our community (all white). In 2021, Hope For the Inner City provided: Financial Assistance: $28,197 in mercy relief to 129 individuals Food Assistance: 2818 boxes of food distributed (partnership with God’s Abundant Grace Ministries) Dental Assistance: 120 New Patients, 240 total visits, $20,285 in fee for service revenue Community Projects completed: 135 Invest Hope: 7 part-time transitional jobs provided Grow Hope: 7500 sq. feet of growing space cultivated, another 5000 sq ft prepared, 1 successful summer growing season, 12 fruit trees installed, 1 land design phase completed Volunteers: 416 new volunteers providing 2370 hours of service, 3 Urban Ministry Teams serving the neighborhood Crisis Relief - Our crisis relief program provides financial assistance ($250 max per person per application and they can request assistance once every 6 months) in the form of rent, utility bill, and water/sewer bill assistance. Our Social Services Director (Rosalyn Ruffin) receives applications from community residents weekly and evaluates those applications with one of our volunteers. We often pay the bills directly and work with landlords in the community, EPB, Tennessee American Water, and the city to help ensure the individuals and families we serve stay out of crisis situations. Food Assistance - Every Tuesday through Friday from 11-4 we provide food for pick up at our location on Roanoke Ave (in partnership with God’s Abundant Grace Ministries). We also distribute food boxes to individuals (primarily senior citizens) on Fridays who have a hard time making it out to Hope For the Inner City. We assign volunteers from both inside and outside the community to help us during our Thursday pick up time and our Friday food deliveries. Turkey for Two and Christmas Store - We have two programs to help families during the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons. Our Turkey for Two program provides thanksgiving turkeys and the "fixins" to our neighbors ensuring that financial barriers will not prevent our neighbors from celebrating the Holiday. We provide turkeys for pick-up and have partnered with Love Fellowship (a local church across the street from us) to distribute the turkeys to residents at Thanksgiving. We also distribute turkeys to residents of Patten Towers and other areas around our city through our other partners. Our Christmas Store provides steeply discounted Christmas presents to neighbors again ensuring that financial barriers will not prevent our neighbors from celebrating the Christmas Season. The Christmas store is open the week before Christmas and is advertised to our residents by word of mouth and through our Turkey for Two program. Dr. Roy Dental Clinic - The Dr. Roy Dental Clinic provides dental services to uninsured individuals providing cleanings, extractions, and a number of services in between. Individuals pay for these services on a sliding scale, the amount they pay being wholly dependent on their unique financial situations. The dental clinic is open by appointment around 4 times a month. Invest Hope - Our invest Hope Program is a 3 month transitional job program focused on serving formerly incarcerated individuals. Program participants work part-time at HFIC providing lawn care services for senior citizens in our community, helping with our food assistance program, providing janitorial services for our building, and maintaining the grounds at HFIC. They also do financial literacy and job preparedness training for a portion of their work week. At the end of the program, participants receive job interviews with a goal of providing them access to full-time employment. This program creates opportunities for individuals to access living wage jobs. Grow Hope Urban Farm - The Grow Hope Urban Farm is operated in partnership with City Farms Grower Coalition and is currently cultivating around 7500 square feet of growing space (annual vegetables). All produce from the farm either goes directly to our neighbors in East Chattanooga or to the Bethlehem Center's Farmers Market in Alton Park. Grow Hope also has plans to expand our growing space (annual vegetables) to at least another 5000 square feet, plant a fruit orchard (apples, figs, peaches, pears, etc.), develop an irrigation system that incorporates rainwater catchment, and develop a natural rainwater mitigation system. The Farm has partnered with a UTC professor (Dr. Lucy Schultz) to provide an experiential learning component to her Environmental Philosophy class. The farm is open to the community and has piqued the interest of area residents including a regular volunteer from the Bayberry Apartments who we hope will eventually become our farm manager. Details on the Capital Infrastructure Improvements Hope for the Inner City has already received multiple quotes from various commercial roofers throughout the region and estimates that roof replacement (which is necessary) will cost around $200k. One of the best quotes we received was $165k plus the cost of any necessary deck replacement the roofers uncover once the old roof is removed (which may be substantial). Our property sits on about 5 acres of land. Over the years, soil has eroded such that our grounds experience a significant amount of standing water at the rear of our building, causing safety issues and making it more difficult to maximize our farm space for fruit and vegetable production. We’ve received multiple quotes for the mitigation of rainwater around the exterior building. Quotes we received providing more comprehensive and lasting solutions to our water issues were around 100k. These quotes included removing hardscapes and significant amounts of earth to redirect water, and installing rainwater catchment, rain gardens, and other trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants. Finally, once the roof replacement happens, we will need to redirect funding and energy to updating the interior of our building. Necessary improvements include but are not limited to: Updates to our plumbing and electrical Updates to multiple bathrooms inside the building Replacement of all windows Renovation to our dental clinic Renovation of food storage for better warehousing of dry goods and refrigeration of perishable goods Refurbishment of our basketball gym; floors, lights, and basketball goals. |
| Please explain how your project meets the requirements of the American Rescue Plan | Hope For the Inner City is embedded in one of the most poverty stricken communities in Chattanooga and has been providing both crisis relief and longer term economic development strategies in the East Chattanooga area for more than 50 years. The coronavirus pandemic has disproportionately affected this neighborhood and our residents are experiencing considerably negative economic impacts. Our programmatic work is designed to address the symptoms and causes of these negative impacts. We are also committed to a meaningful and constructive reduction in recidivism, creating pathways to workforce development, addressing racial and socioeconomic disparities in public health outcomes, and providing access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food for our neighbors. |
| Where would your project take place? | 1800 Roanoke Ave, Chattanooga, TN 37406 |
| How much will your project cost in total? | 400000 |
| Do you have any matching funding sources from other local governments, private entities, non-profits, or philanthropic entities for your project? | Yes |
| Please describe the source and list amounts of any other funding. | Hope For the Inner City receives between $500k-$800k annually from churches, individuals, private foundations, and local businesses to operate the organization. This distribution of donor constituent groups includes a small number of major funders and a large number of small faithful supporters. However, the amount of funding required to make the significant capital improvements our organization needs to sustain our work for the foreseeable future has proven overwhelming for our current donor base. |
| What portion of the project are you asking the city to fund? | 80% of the request for funding for capital improvements. We will seek other sources of capital funding in addition to the City's support and will also seek other sources for 100% of general operating funding |
| If funded, when would your project start? | July 1, 2022 |
| How long would your project take to complete? | 2-3 years |
| What milestones would you use to measure your project’s progress? | Having a safe and dry building for conducting our work Significantly mitigating the rainwater runoff around our property |
| How would you ensure accountability and transparency throughout the project lifecycle? | We welcome the city’s input, counsel, and involvement as we rebuild the capital infrastructure of our organization in order to sustainably serve our neighborhood and assist the Mayor in achieving key objectives outlined in the One Chattanooga Strategic Plan. |
| If successful, how would your project benefit the community? | We envision an East Chattanooga community that is transformed through loving service, meaningful work, and reconciliation with Christ. We have witnessed glimpses of this vision achieved during the pandemic and are motivated to continue to walk alongside our neighbors as they fight poverty and overcome the myriad of challenges they face daily. We believe that a strong Hope For the Inner City can significantly impact our neighbors and improve their prospects for the future. |
| How will you attract community buy-in for your project? | We have already made significant strides throughout the pandemic to re-engage our neighbors. Hope For the Inner City has had considerable buy-in from the community at various times throughout its history, particularly when the Harriet Tubman Housing Project was still in existence. We are committed to continuing the daily, life on life, relational work that we believe will build the trust of those in close proximity to us. |
| Is there anything else you would like us to know about your project? | We are grateful for your consideration of our request and will continue to be praying for you as you lead us in building a better future for all Chattanoogans. |