Statements
Mission
The Mission of Nashville Peacemakers is twofold. Our focus is on the entire family unit. In supporting the youth we mentor those in distressed neighborhoods to provide them basic life skills and help improve their feelings of self-worth to choose peaceful alternatives to violence. On the parenting side we are an action based grief support group that helps families who have been impacted by violence with primary focus on the mother to support them not only through the grieving process but also navigating the criminal proceedings when applicable. Our Vision is to be the catalyst of change on a worldwide scale, so all children live to be adults who lead productive and meaningful lives.
Background
Our History The Back StoryIn 2003, North Nashville resident Clemmie Greenlee founded Nashville Peacemakers after losing her only son Rodriguez in a gang-related shooting. She herself had only recently been rescued from a world of drugs, violence and prostitution by the Magdalene recovery program (supported by Charlotte Avenue-based Thistle Farms). It all began with her enslavement by sex traffickers at age 12. Nashville Peacemakers was established, and continues to operate, as a 501(c)3 nonprofit under the legal name Galaxy Star Drug Awareness. But the initial focus on HIV prevention and education, and advocating for Nashville's homeless, quickly shifted to a street-based mission of curtailing violence in the community, particularly among young black men. Clemmie has personally received numerous awards for her life-changing work, including being named 2007 Nashvillian of the Year by the Nashville Scene and receiving a Soros Justice Fellowship grant for a community center where kids could safely have fun, make music, learn basic like skills, and receive tutoring in reading and science. In 2012, Clemmie temporarily relocated to New Orleans to help Thistle Farms founder Becca Stevens establish Eden House, a shelter for victims of sex trafficking. Most of her return trips to Nashville were spent at candlelight vigils and ministering to hurting moms. After her straight-A nephew was accidentally shot while playing with a gun, she decided to return to Nashville full-time in 2015 to redouble her efforts to end the bloodshed. Three programs are the pillars of Nashville Peacemakers today: Back to Basics (for girls) and Straight Talk (for boys) giving youth in distressed neighborhoods basic life skills and self-worth, and the M.O.M. support group for mothers recovering from the murders of their children. The Present Reality In Nashville's low-income neighborhoods, violence is an everyday fact of life. Gangs recruit the young, stealing their childhood and, often, their life?creating a public health issue for all Nashvillians. Homicide is today the No. 1 cause of death among African-American boys ages 10-24. Nashville Peacemakers is working to raise children on truth, giving them a vision for their future
Impact
Nashville Peacemakers has been a grassroots organization in every sense of the word since its founding in 2003. With the growing need for anti-violence programming for youth, and greater resources we have thankfully received to more firmly stand up programs, the board of Nashville Peacemakers is currently in the midst of a strategic visioning exercise with Center for Nonprofit Management to develop a comprehensive set of short- and long-term strategic goals to strengthen our community impact and continued longevity. Being a consistent and trauma-informed presence in the lives of at-risk youth during their formative years is critical to building trust and enacting change?one child at a time. That is likewise true of families living in high-crime, violence-prone neighborhoods where gun- and gang-related deaths are unspeakably common.While gun violence continues to plague many neighborhoods in the Nashville area, and is on track to claim as many young lives as automobile crashes, Nashville Peacemakers is stepping into the streets where the trouble is erupting to address root causes. We cannot fix an epidemic, but we can and have (quite literally) saved one life at a time. As just reported in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 33 years' worth of medical studies has found that holding attitudes favoring retaliation, prior involvement in violent events (including as a victim) and living in a community where violence or economic disadvantage are higher than normal are all risk factors for a firearm injury. These are the families we serve and the challenges we have taken on. Our program has volunteers who have "talked down" senseless retaliatory street fights and brought divided families back together. We have mentored a gang member into a new way of life, and she now works for another nonprofit making $50,000 annually and talks about running for office locally. Middle-school-aged girls who were once out of control in the B2B program now discipline the newcomers and vie for opportunities to share their "wisdom bombs" and say the mealtime prayer. Boys call Ms. Clemmie personally to ask when Straight Talk will start up again. It breaks our hearts. Personal, about-face stories from program participants?e.g., youth who do measurably better in school, are better able to name and express feelings, make eye contact and speak up in healthy ways to perceived or actual injustices, and demonstrate improved life skills (e.g., prepare a healthy meal, use basic hand tools, write a resume, properly introduce someone), as well as family members who have experienced devastating loss who sufficiently heal to become peer mentors and leaders in their families and neighborhoods. One specific example is a pair of siblings, one who a little over a year ago was too under-confident to speak and another too unfocused and disruptive to get through 15 minutes of a lesson, who were just accepted into the Nashville School of the Arts (for vocals and viola ). Another is the 0% to 100% participation rate of mothers with the B2B program. A third is a devastated mom who, three years after losing her son to gang violence, took over leadership of the MOM program and is now one of three program participants taking formal trauma training to sustain the program.
Needs
1. Regular monthly donors to meet $3000/month goal2. Grant writer3. CPA to audit our financial4. Hygiene products for women and men5. VOLUNTEERS!!!!
CEO Statement
Nashville Peacemakers has been successful in reaching teens and young adults in Nashville's high risk areas. This is a grassroots organization determined to change the minds of our children and young adults about the content of the music they listen to, the movies they see and the desensitized way we view violence. We work to shape our communities and fight violence by bringing the family unit together through life skills training and education, which we believe are key ingredients in the quest for self actualization. In order for the children and families in our community to stop killing each other and reach their full potential, they must be equipped with the tools needed to do so.
Board Chair Statement
The successes of Nashville Peacemakers include a permanent, committed volunteer facilitator for the Back to Basics (B2B) program who has developed a trusted, mentoring relationship with the girls; a just-in-time leader (most quarters) for the parallel Straight Talk (ST) program for boys; and the ability to accommodate the growing need for the Mothers Over Murder (MOM) program offering grief support to families struggling to cope with the loss of a loved one to gun-related street violence. One challenge is establishing leadership continuity for participants in the ST program, which we are addressing through grant requests providing financial support for facilitators and themed programming as well as better use of social media to celebrate successes and attract volunteers and promote understanding of our unique mission. Another is improving the communication channel between quasi-independent leadership of the MOM program and the board regarding upcoming events and general awareness of the prevailing personal issues of recovering families, which we have already begun to address via the addition of a MOM client (and leader) to our governing board. As board president, I (Deborah Borfitz) can testify to the tangible changes our programs have made possible because I have witnessed them firsthand. In the spring on 2018, I co-facilitated fitness training of the B2B girls for a 5K run (many walked rather than ran but they were ready for pickup starting as early as 4:30 AM on a Saturday and went home with a few medals) and I have watched many of these same girls blossom into more joyful and respectful human beings who are uniformly doing better in school and home and watching out for each other at every turn. I have seen a coed group of boys and girls enthusiastically lay down beats at Rocketown week after week and then proudly if nervously perform their original rap song to an audience of family and friends. And I have seen MOMs sit in a circle of chairs with their hearts bleeding and slowly, one by one, heal enough to speak about how they deal with the empty seat at the dinner table, or have found ways to turn their anger into constructive action, advocacy or peer mentoring.
Service Categories |
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| Primary Category: | Youth Development - Youth Development Programs |
| Secondary Category: | Community Improvement, Capacity Building - |
| Tertiary Category: | Public & Societal Benefit - |
Areas Served
Traditionally, Nashville Peacemakers has predominantly served disadvantaged neighborhoods in East and North Nashville. Gentrification, however, has widened our service area to pockets of need across Davidson and surrounding counties, as allowed by limited transportation resources.
| TN - Davidson |
| TN - Rutherford |
| TN - Montgomery |
