Begin Anew

Christian women's job corps of middle Tennessee (dba Begin Anew of middle Tennessee) was established in 1997 as an adult education ministry of the nashville baptist association. In february 2003, christian women's job corps incorporated as a 501(c)3 organization, and we added services to men in 2008. The name changed to Begin Anew in 2016 in order to represent the organization's scope and purpose. Begin Anew empowers individuals to overcome the obstacles caused by poverty by providing education, mentoring, and resources. We believe everyone deserves a chance to Begin Anew and walk a journey to a brighter future. Begin Anew provides three education tracks to adult students: hse (high school equivalency), ell (english language learning), and computer and job skills training. The hse track offers tutoring and/or classes in five subjects: language arts - reading, language arts - writing, mathematics, science, and social studies in preparation for a student taking the national hiset (high school equivalency test) exam administered by psi services llc. The ell track accommodates three levels of instruction: level 1 (beginner), level 2 (intermediate), and level 3 (advanced). Level 1 focuses on foundational vocabulary and basic grammar with reading, speaking, writing, and listening in mind. Level 2 builds on vocabulary and grammar with additional verb tenses, introduces adverbs, and teaches longer sentence structures in order to advance a student's life skills. Level 3 prepares a student for workplace vocabulary by learning phrases, sayings, and concepts such as how to exercise critical thinking skills and spends more time in comprehensive reading and writing. Computer and job skills training instructs students in the basics of internet browsing, keyboard typing, and commonly used office suite applications. Students also receive life skills instruction on topics such as job applications, interviewing, and resume writing. Life skills instruction teaches you how to write a resume, interview for a job, and set personal life goals. Begin Anew primarily serves students over the age of 18 (with the exception of a few minors with parental and school board permission) with five programs at four locations across middle Tennessee: madison, combined men and women (madison church of christ 106 gallatin pike north, madison, tn 37115), nashville, women only, (nashville first baptist church 108 7th avenue south, nashville, tn 37203), franklin combined men and women (walker baptist church 1350 west main st., franklin, tn 37064), and woodbine, combined men and women, (the church at woodbine 29 whitsett rd., nashville, tn 37210). In 2023, we added an online campus that serves davidson, williamson and surrounding counties. A program manager oversees the volunteers and students at each program by providing oversight, training, and direction. Each location holds classes for two hours on monday and thursday evenings from 6-8pm, except franklin which meets on tuesday and thursday evenings from 6-8pm as well as makes a daytime class available on thursday from 9am-noon. The online campus offers a flexible schedule. All students, whether in- person classes or online are paired with volunteers who serve as teachers, tutors, and mentors. Our program is built on a relational model, which is intense in personal time and depth of individual approach. In addition to our adult education tracks, we offer free children's programming while students attend classes, provide students with a volunteer mentor/encourager, make referrals to meet student needs, and continually seek to create a safe community that cares for one another. Highlights from 2023: throughout 2023, Begin Anew tracks student and volunteer engagement in our customer relationship management (crm) database salesforce. Executive staff continues to work closely with goal collective to achieve a long-term goal of being able to share aggregate or de-identified data and refer students to one another. Throughout 2023, Begin Anew maintained quality programming at reduced costs due to utilizing trained volunteers and in-kind donations. In 2023, 200+ volunteers contributed 5182 volunteer hours (a value of over 155,000 according to the independent sector) as tutors, teachers, children's program providers, mentors, executive board members, fundraising committee members, meal preparers, meal servers, greeters, and more area churches and loftis steel and aluminum donated space for adult education programs, children's programming, special events, and administrative offices, which amounted to 91,931 of in-kind rent donations. In total, Begin Anew received 162,878 of in-kind donations. In 2023, Begin Anew served 333 students and 80 children. 53 students graduated from the following programs: 22 hse, 12 ell level 1, 15 ell level 2, and 4 computer and job skills, with 62% of other students continuing to make progress or graduating. Our students represented 38 countries of origin: afghanistan, azerbaijan, bahamas, bahamas, belarus, bolivia, brazil, china, columbia, costa rica, cuba, democratic republic of congo, ecuador, egypt, el salvador, guatemala, haiti, honduras, iran, iraq, jamaica, japan, jordan, kenya, korea, liberia, mexico, myanmar-burma, nicaragua, nigeria, peru, sudan, taiwan, turkey, uganda, ukraine, united states of america, venezuela, and vietnam. Finally, we recognized and celebrated what Begin Anew desired to do with excellence: educate, mentor, and provide resources. According to staff, the level of commitment and expertise of volunteers increased. Staff continued to increase our efforts of building stronger relationships with others, which began in 2019, in order to equip our students and their families with better resources. We knew that through solid partnerships with churches, non-profits, government officials, businesses, and other agencies - our students benefit the most. With an atmosphere of community, the students of Begin Anew often shared their greatest current needs. This past year allowed our staff to find new partnerships and continue to establish new ways to meet the needs of our students as we connected them to a more extensive network of resources and partnerships. Begin Anew's executive director, heather norvell, continued in her leadership role as part of the guiding team of the goal collective. In addition, heather co-led the fundraising workgroup. Goal collective remains a group of adult education providers collaborating to make progress on adult learning in nashville. We worked with individual non-profits as organization wide partners to advance our understanding of adult education, mutually refer students, share insights and ideas, and obtain vouchers for student hiset exam fees as follows: martha o'bryan center, nashville adult literacy council, nashville international center for empowerment, nashville public library, tn department of labor & workforce development adult education division, Tennessee language center, and workforce essentials. Also, we collaborated with other non-profits as community partners who provided additional resources to our students outside of our expertise such as adult learning center/literacy council, american job center in davidson county, benevolence center of madison church of christ, bethlehem centers of nashville, catholic charities, centerstone, columbia state, executive board of the southern baptist convention, faith family medical, goodwill, graceworks, hca uninsured hotline, interfaith dental, justice for all tn, king's daughter's child development center, legal aid society of middle tn, life care family services, madison chamber of commerce (women in business), madison church of christ counseling center, martha o'bryan center, mental health coop, mercy community health services, metro action commission, mobile dental unit of brentwood baptist church, nashville first baptist clothing closet, the nashville food project, nashville public library, nhc, people loving nashville, the salvation army, second harvest, tn department of human resources, Tennessee disability pathfinder, Tennessee immigrant & refugee rights coalition, Tennessee reconnect, thriftsmart, united way hotline 211, united way of greater nashville, uprise, wayne reed christian childcare, the well outreach, williamson county legal aid, and woodmont baptist church food pantry. Finally, we worked with area churches, hands on nashville, and local colleges and universities to supply a sustainable volunteer base.