Begin Anew / Christian Womens Job Corps of Middle Tennessee

Christian women'Womens'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'Womens'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. The computer and Job skills training teaches ms office suite/google workspace programs such as word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, email, etc. Along with skills such as building a resume, conducting a Job search, interview techniques, budgeting, goal setting, etc. 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). 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. 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 2022: throughout 2022, Begin Anew prepared for the launch of a new customer relationship management (crm) database. Executive staff worked closely with three other goal collective agencies as part of a data cohort to train, design, and implement a salesforce instance specific to each agency but with the long-term goal in mind of being able to share aggregate or de- identified data and refer students to one another. By the end of 2022, Begin Anew downloaded a year's worth of data from the current sharepoint database and prepared to upload the data into the new crm database to launch at the start of 2023. Two Begin Anew graduates won national scholarships to continue their educational pursuits. Margareth caballero received the faye dove scholarship from the national Christian women'Womens's Job Corps and used it to enroll in vizio makeup academy where she earned her cosmetology license. Laurien assiss earned the academic award from the national women'Womens's missionary union to pursue her bachelor's in business administration through williamson college. Throughout 2022, Begin Anew maintained quality programming at reduced costs due to utilizing trained volunteers and in-kind donations. In 2022, 300+ volunteers contributed 5166 volunteer hours (a value of over 134,000 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 addition, the nashville food project and machenry's donated 40,284 of in-kind food so that students could participate in a meal together before classes start at nashville, woodbine, and franklin (thursday evening only). The meals start 30 minutes before classes and promote community in addition to meeting a need for students coming to class directly from work. In total, Begin Anew received 161,068 of in-kind donations. In 2022, Begin Anew served 330 students and 68 children. We graduated 62 students from 63 programs: 24 hse, 18 ell level 1, 11 ell level 2, 7 ell level 3, and 3 computer and Job skills with other students continuing to make forward progress. Our students represented 34 countries of origin: antigua, bahamas, belarus, brazil, burma, china, columbia, costa rica, cuba, democratic republic of congo, ecuador, egypt, el salvador, Georgia, guatemala, haiti, honduras, iran, iraq, jamaica, japan, mexico, nicaragua, nigeria, pakistan, south korea, sudan, taiwan, turkey, ukraine, union of soviet socialist republics, 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 benefitted 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 larger 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, ascension health care, benevolence center of madison church of christ, bethlehem centers of nashville, better options, book'em, catholic charities, centerstone, columbia state, comcast, david rogers law office, executive board of the southern baptist convention, faith family medical, goodwill, graceworks, hca uninsured hotline, interfaith dental, justice for all tn, khan academy summer camps, king's daughter's child development center, legal aid society of Middle tn, life care family services, the little pantry that could, madison chamber of commerce (women in business), madison church of christ counseling center, martha o'bryan center, mental health coop, mercy clinic, metro action commission, mobile dental unit of brentwood baptist church, nashville first baptist clothing closet, the nashville food project, nashville nurtures, nashville public library, nhc, machenry's, people loving nashville, project connect, st. lukes community house, the salvation army, second harvest, tn department of human resources, Tennessee disability pathfinder, tn hunger alert, Tennessee immigrant & refugee rights coalition, Tennessee justice center, Tennessee re