Author: Halley Johnson

An abandoned bank building is rarely considered a sign of progress, but a former First Tennessee branch in South Memphis will soon become just that.

A partnership between First Tennessee, the South Memphis Alliance, and the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative will turn the building into the Dream Seekers Center, where “aged-out” foster youth can find shelter, support, and the resources to start living on their own.

“When someone turns 18, they’re considered an adult, and they’re forced out of the foster-care system,” says Reginald Milton, executive director of the South Memphis Alliance.

“We’ve got to think about how we can help these young people reach adulthood.”

While Milton says the most critical thing the center will offer is a place to live — homeless youth can stay there for up to 18 months — they’ll also provide extensive programs to help them become self-sufficient. Without parents or guardians to offer guidance and support, many former foster children are susceptible to drug use, suicide, unemployment, unplanned pregnancy, and criminal activity.

“As an organization, we try to empower people to engage issues on their own,” Milton says. “We want to help these young people become more civically involved by giving them the tools to do so.”

The Dream Seekers Center will also focus on financial literacy.

“It’s easy for an 18-year-old to go into debt. And most people that age have parents to help them out of such a situation,” Milton says. “These youth don’t have a backup. When they get into a financial situation, it can affect them for the rest of their lives.”

The South Memphis Alliance’s counter to this problem is early education — the Jim Casey Initiative targets foster youth from age 14 to 24 — paired with concrete financial help. The Dream Seekers Center will also give its youth a financial boost, matching each former foster kid’s yearly savings up to $1,000.

The South Memphis Alliance hopes to create a youth center where local groups can converge and offer more comprehensive services for struggling young Memphians.

“Separately, a nonprofit often tries to become a jack-of-all-trades,” Milton says.

“Under one roof, each agency can focus on its core service, and when there’s a problem they can’t solve, they can say, ‘Go across the hall.'”

Soulsville Charter School teacher Bryan Hearn has used DonorsChoose.org since he began teaching a few years ago.

“I heard about it from another teacher the first year I was here,” the 10th-grade English teacher said. “That’s how I get all of my novels.”

The site works as a homepage for education proposals, which prospective donors can visit and pledge to fund any amount of a project’s necessary budget. While there are users who give to projects outside their communities, Hearn says most of the funds he’s received have been from familiar faces.

“For every project, I get random donations from people in other cities,” he said, “but mostly it’s people in my social network. It’s kind of up to the teacher. If you have a project [on the site] but you don’t publicize it, it’s harder to raise the money.”

His class’ fourth — and latest — set of novels didn’t come from familiar faces, however, but maybe familiar flavors. Earlier this month, Sonic’s Limeades for Learning campaign awarded a combined $2,000 to teachers at Soulsville Charter School, including more than $600 to Hearn’s class.

As part of Limeades for Learning, Sonic will give more than $500,000 to the DonorsChoose.org projects that receive the most votes from visitors. Each week, a new group of teachers will be selected to receive funding, and if there are more than one million votes by the end of September, Sonic will extend the voting period and donate another $100,000.

Projects range from Hearn’s books to cameras used to supplement math classes; all can be perused via Limeades for Learning’s website, limeadesforlearning.com. And though Sonic works each year to take a chunk out of the funds needed to make each project possible, DonorsChoose.org continues to attract individual donors year-round.

“It helps the kids get novels into their hands that they can keep for the rest of their lives, and the money doesn’t come out of the school’s budget,” Hearn said. “It comes from people who want to give these kids a life full of choices.”

When the city of Memphis planned to close four community centers in 2008, nonprofit Memphis Athletic Ministries took over those operations. Now at least one councilperson thinks that, given the group’s success, the idea should be expanded.

Councilman Jim Strickland recently proposed that the city accept applications from nonprofits to run some or all of the city’s 24 additional centers.

“They have so many more resources than we as a city have,” says Strickland. “The public gets the same or better service, and the city saves a lot of money.”

Under Strickland’s proposal, applications would be accepted both from already existing nonprofits and from new groups hoping to focus on the centers alone. While those leaders will still report to the city’s parks director, Strickland hopes that the focus each organization can give to its particular center will spark ideas for new programs and more dedicated services.

Strickland’s optimism isn’t shared by all members of the community, however. Potential opponents have voiced several concerns, among them that services could become more expensive.

Memphis Athletic Ministries also has a special emphasis on youth programming, which has made some senior citizens worry they won’t receive the same attention.

“As far as I can tell, all the ‘cons’ come from misinformation,” Strickland says, pointing out that these nonprofits will enter into a legal agreement with the city that sets out certain terms. “When we issue the request for proposals,” he says, “we can require that they provide the same services at the same price as the city would.”

Some also fear that the resolution ultimately will lead to community centers closed or abandoned, but Strickland emphasizes that the point is to improve center services.

“We won’t be closing any centers,” he says. “If a center goes without a bid from a nonprofit, it will remain in operation as usual.”

Since nonprofits can apply for grant money from outside sources, Strickland predicts better facilities and more extensive programming.

“If a nonprofit can double or triple the staffing, provide the same services for young and old, and save the city $150,000,” Strickland says, “everybody wins.”