Statements

Mission

Our mission is to provide educational opportunities to inner city youths. We facilitate educational seminars to Juniors and Seniors in Nashville's Title One high schools on financial literacy, how to obtain and retain employment and wealth, general life skills (i.e., how to dress for an interview, how to interview, etc. ) and prevention seminars covering topics such as domestic violence, date rape, sexual and physical assault, and racism, a youth development which will focus on character development, cognitive restructuring, life skills training, anger management, and employability skills. The program's goal is to reduce the involvement of these youth in violent-related activities.

Background

Established in March 2014, MCC was created to give back to the community by providing educational opportunities to low income students through lectures. We have young adults and educators, professionals and others to communicate with young adults regarding how to reduce domestic and other types of violence by learning coping mechanisms designed to teach them how to deal with what customarily prompts involvement in violent events.

Impact

Our greatest accomplishment to date is the success of our financial literacy sessions. The students have been very responsive and attentive. Great participation. Feedback has been wonderfully positive. The students have stated they learned a lot at these sessions and the information will assist them going forward.

Needs

Our most pressing need is cash to be able to recruit more professionals so we can provide mentors that will be helping students stay in school until degree attainment by assisting in identifying and addressing perceived obstacles to students' course completion (e.g., work schedules, family responsibilities, financial obligations) and counseling students both on how to acquire better study skills and on how to identify additional academic resources at their respective institutions. We would also like to bring in keynote speakers for Martin Luther King Jr. day to speak to students about the importance of community service.

CEO Statement

The Executive Director, Eva M. Lemeh, by profession, is an attorney and Chapter 7 Trustee for the Middle District of Tennessee. Her vision is to assist young people to further their education to the highest level they can achieve. With that in mind, she established the MCC. What makes MCC distinctive is along with the scholarship stipend we provide students with mentors. Each year, students from low-income families face seemingly insurmountable barriers to college access and success. It has been surmised that these students often lack the guidance and support required to prepare for college, apply for financial aid, and persist throughout their studies and ultimately graduate from college. According to data collected and reported by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (2015), of all first time students who entered college in the Fall 2013 year, only 69.6 percent returned to college at any institution for the 2014 school year. That is more than a 30 percent college dropout rate. Among the contributing factors to this dropout rate are the rising costs of a college education, student transition issues, and lack of ongoing support. There is empirical evidence that show youth participating in mentoring programs do better. As a result, these young people are more likely to stay in school and attain higher levels of educational success, less likely to participate in gangs or be involved in substance abuse, and less likely to be involved in delinquency and the juvenile justice system. These programs will allow MCC to address the following unique needs in Nashville : (i) MCC's college mentoring program will help keep students in college until degree attainment and out of gangs and off the streets thereby reducing the number of violent related crimes and increasing the number of educated lower income people in the area; (ii) MCC's lecture series will help to educate a specific group of individuals in which there is a very high level of violence, both sexual and physical, and teach them alternatives to reacting in a physical and violent way to stressful situations; and (iii) MCC's youth development high school program will teach high school kids how to better cope with issues, especially those that cause them to become angry and out of control, teach them other life skills and assist them to learn skills and use those skills to obtain employment with the end result being less of them choosing a life of crime to support themselves and their families.

Board Chair Statement

While the vision for MCC has existed for years, the actual entity is three years old in March, 2017 and we are thrilled that our greatest accomplishment is coming in the Fall of 2018 when we will submit a small scholarship stipend on behalf of 13 need based, low income inner city Davidson County students for their freshman year of college. Other accomplishments will be providing a place for the athletic talents of our youth to be showcased and providing a platform for the dissemination of information that will hopefully encourage them to make better choices on and off the court that will eventually help them maximize their earning potential. I would be remiss if I did not count our volunteers and sponsors as a major accomplishment. People and organizations have stepped in and up to assist us to make this vision become a reality. Without their tireless efforts, this event would not have occurred in 2016 or 2017 and the plan for 2018 would not be underway.

Service Categories
Primary Category:	Education  - Scholarships & Student Financial Aid
Secondary Category:	Youth Development  - Youth Development Programs
Tertiary Category:	Community Improvement, Capacity Building  - Community & Neighborhood Development

Areas Served

The schools are Title 1 schools located in Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee, chosen based upon the enrollment of a high number of students who reside in Nashville, Davidson County's lower income areas.

TN - Davidson