Statements

Mission

Harvest Hands is a catalyst for community development working for wholeness in South Nashville. We work alongside our neighbors to further education, healthy living, spiritual formation, and economic development.

Background

We believe that neighborhood revitalization begins with investing in the lives of kids. We are working to raise up a generation of leaders from our neighborhood to make way for transformation in South Nashville. When we first started operating in 2007, we spent a lot of time getting to know our neighbors and asking what it was that the community needed. The consistent answer was that kids needed something constructive to do after school. In the unsupervised hours between school and parents returning home from work (3 - 6 PM), violent juvenile crime triples and children face the most danger of becoming victims of crime. In response, we gathered up our resources and started an after school and summer program for students in pre-kindergarten through high school.
In 2016, we participated in a Nashville summit on youth violence where six priority areas were identified to reduce youth violence: training and employment, meaningful youth engagement, health awareness and access, restorative justice and diversion, a safe environment, and education. In response, we expanded our programming to address each of these priority areas in order to meet our mission of cultivating holistic community development in our neighborhood.
Today, students enrolled in our after school programs participate in age-appropriate lessons and activities related to language arts and literacy, math skill development, socio-emotional learning, leadership development, and spiritual formation. High school students are invited to work at our social enterprise, Humphreys Street, where they receive critical job skills training, financial literacy resources, and career discernment counseling.

Impact

Since 2008, more than 90% of student employees have completed high school. In the last 2 years, 100% of our students have received a full-time job/internship or enrolled in a college/job training program within 12 months of graduating. Many of our program graduates have returned to serve their community, some even by joining the full-time staff at Harvest Hands. Today, about one-sixth of full-time staff members at Harvest Hands are past program participants or parents of participants. Harvest Hands is raising leaders and providing meaningful employment that enables our neighbors to hone their talents and gifts. Long term, we aim to kindle generational transformation and foster flourishing neighborhoods in South Nashville.

Needs

At this time, Harvest Hands is accepting monetary funds, as well as in-kind contributions, to support academic and wellness programs for elementary, middle & high school students, and to support the job skills training and mentoring program through our student-led social enterprise Humphreys Street. Additionally, we can receive support through our business at Humphreys Street. To shop Humphreys Street products, please visit humphreysstreet.com or come see us in one of our two locations. To inquire about wholesale accounts with Humphreys Street, please email Casey at casey@harvesthandscdc.com.

Greater Nashville is home to many neighbors in under-resourced communities, like Napier-Sudekum, with youth who have the potential to become the next generation of community leaders. As we look to broaden the community we serve, we aim to expand our resources to best address our neighborhood's needs and grow our reach to support other communities in Nashville. Harvest Hands is excited to expand our mission and services by identifying a second site for our programs. We need to raise an additional $163,220 this year to fund this project through its first semester of operations, serving 30 students.

Service Categories
Primary Category:	Youth Development  - Youth Development Programs
Secondary Category:	Community Improvement, Capacity Building  - Community & Neighborhood Development
Tertiary Category:	Employment  - Job Training

Areas Served

We serve students in five South Nashville neighborhoods: Napier-Sudekum, Chestnut Hill, Vine Hill, Wedgewood-Houston, and Woodbine. The majority of our students live in Napier-Sudekum, a neighborhood that struggles with the effects of poverty, violence, and systemic injustices. In the local government housing complex, the average annual household income is $6,533. Napier-Sudekum lies within District 19, the Davidson County district with the highest rate of violent crimes among youth.

TN - Davidson