Statements

Mission

Salama is committed to improving each child's life trajectory through Christ-centered academic enrichment, performing arts and character development.

Background

Burdened by the wasted potential of too many underserved youth, and driven by a hope for the inner city, Stan and Alice Weber relocated their family to the Edgehill neighborhood 34 years ago. Their desire was to live with, serve with, and invest in one of the city's most vulnerable communities. Through a partnership with several local churches, the Webers founded Salama Urban Ministries in 1985, and, for the next 20 years, the organization provided successful after school leadership clubs and summer enrichment camps to empower hundreds of youth in the community. In 2005, through a strategic planning season, conducted in collaboration with Nashville's Center for Nonprofit Management, revealed that parents and supporters desired something more in-depth for their children - a program that would go deeper with fewer, serving the same students each day on a year-round basis. Thus, in 2007, Salama launched its current model, known as The Salama Institute. Now, through The Institute, Salama is able to provide high quality extended learning opportunities for up to 150 K-12th grade youth each day, after school, and all day, every day, for six weeks of the summer. We provide a pathway to success by investing up to 650 hours a year in each student through a holistic youth development program that combines hands-on academic enrichment, the performing arts and spiritual development in the Christian faith. Our goal is to equip each child with the education, skills, and values needed to realize their full potential, regardless of barriers.

Impact

Our comprehensive, year-round approach enables us to go much deeper with each student, and we are seeing a tremendous impact as a result. Up to 90% of Salama's participants earned promotion to the next grade level. 88% of school year enrollees who completed post-testing using the Basic Reading Inventory (BRI) showed improvement in reading skills. 75% of school year enrollees who completed post-testing using the California Diagnostic and Placement Test showed improvement in math skills. In the arts, more than 83% of students achieved 75% attendance in all performing arts-related activities.

Needs

We are hoping to raise $150,000 to finalize the build out of our commercial kitchen in our new location. We are also looking for sponsors to support our youth summer performance at the end of our summer camp, which will be held on Belmont University's campus.

CEO Statement

We at Salama Urban Ministries, greatly appreciate the support and commitment of our friends as we continue to provide positive youth development opportunities for Nashville's youth. We are proud of the impact we've made in the Nashville community for the last 35+ years, and look forward to the next leg of the journey. While there are similar extended learning programs across the country, The Salama Institute is unique in its approach to developing each child's full potential. Salama combines academic enrichment, the performing arts and spiritual development throughout our programming to create a well-balanced, holistic experience for our young people. I am proud to lead an organization that has evolved over the years to meet the expressed needs of our community. We will continue to look critically at our work in order to meet these needs in the most effective ways possible. We welcome every investment and seek to grow vibrant relationships with individual, corporate and community partners. Our collective work is proving successful, and we look forward to helping more of Nashville's youth reach their fullest potential.

Service Categories
Primary Category:	Education  - Educational Services
Secondary Category:	Arts, Culture & Humanities  - Performing Arts Schools
Tertiary Category:	Religion- Related  - Christianity

Areas Served

Edgehill Community and South Nashville

TN - Davidson