National Rebuilding Day | Rebuilding Together Chattanooga

Home owners insurance is a luxury not everyone can afford. Rebuilding Together Chattanooga (RTC) is a neighbors-helping-neighbors initiative to provide safety and health related home repairs and modifications to needy home owners in the Chattanooga area.  Most do not have insurance. Literally all other home-repair programs in Chattanooga require homeowners' insurance by the homeowner.

Most directly, RTC programming benefits low-income, disabled, elderly, veterans, single-parents, and the uninsured. In addition to making needed repairs, projects help households age in place with dignity, reduce their energy bills, improve their quality of life and sense of community, and address safety issues.  Home and community environments have a major impact on health and well-being. At a time when the income inequality gap continues to grow and the costs of homeownership continues to rise, too many of our neighbors suffer from the health and economic consequences of living in substandard housing and unsafe communities. Our $3,000 grant will support a major repair project for National Rebuilding Day, scheduled for April 25, 2020.

English Immersion Day Camp | Language South

In Spring 2020, Language South is opening an English immersion day camp for middle schoolers (current 6th-8th graders) who are English Language Learners (ELL). Students will have an opportunity to experience success with the English language and improve their self-identity as language learners. This personal growth will allow these students to go back into the traditional classroom with an increased motivation that will help them set and achieve ambitious goals for their futures. With our $3,000 grant, Language South will be offering full and partial scholarships to camper families who are not able to afford the full cost of camp. Click here for more information!

Why are we doing this? In the needs assessment conducted with community members, including individuals from Howard High School, ELLA Chattanooga, La Paz, and the Chattanooga Public Library, all felt an English camp would be beneficial for ELL students in the area by helping them advance in the critical area of English language acquisition.

Music and Dance Therapy | Austin Hatcher Foundation

Cancer sucks. Especially if you’re a kid.

In the next year, dance and music-based interventions will be utilized at Austin Hatcher Foundation to aid in the physical, emotional, cognitive and spiritual well being of their recovering childhood cancer patients. Music-based therapies have demonstrated success in improving patients' communication, self-esteem, and aid in physical recovery. For one patient, in particular, music-based therapy enabled him to communicate both through sign language in dance and verbally through audio. This young man is both a cancer survivor and suffers from cerebral palsy from the unfortunate side effect of life-saving medication. Because he struggles with communication, his mother has been very thankful that this intervention that has become available to her family at no cost thanks to the contributions made by the UNFoundation of Chattanooga. These interventions will be available year-round to all patients at no cost, regardless of race, socioeconomics and age.

Our $3,000 grant will pay for a mix of individual and group-based dance and music classes in the Spring of 2020 and will allow Austin Hatcher to host group music and dance therapy at their 2020 summer camps in June/July of 2020. The instructor is Louie Marin, and he will be in residence as the instructor for all classes.

Transportation Matters | Choice Health Network

When you’re sick, you need to get to the doctor. Right? In 2018 we funded Choice Health Network, located on McCallie Ave in Downtown Chattanooga, with food cards that were able to keep HIV+ individuals from going hungry.  Case manager Kelly Smith is charged with identifying HIV+ individuals in the community and assisting them (based on income eligibility) with the things most of us take for granted, our health.

Transportation is one of the services Choice Health Network offers, but the monies provided by the government have run short. The state allows $3000 for the fiscal year, which has never been enough, but with the addition of 15 new clients in the past 2 months, the funding is going faster than ever.  And with their client base projected to double over the coming year additional funding was imperative. Quite simply, our $2,000 grant money will be used to purchase gas cards, bus passes and allow for reimbursement of .47/mile for case managers who use their own vehicles to transport clients to their doctor appointments. Case managers for the win.

First Christmas | Bridge Refugee Services

Bridge Refugee Services is a nonprofit agency that is committed to supporting refugees as they rebuild their lives and become successful and integrated members of our community. In addition to providing access to training and support for refugees so that they can enhance diversity and community richness, they are also dedicated to education, advocacy, and open conversation. 

December 2019 will be the first inaugural event in Chattanooga: First Christmas at Bridge Refugee Services. This special evening is an opportunity for the families of recently resettled refugees and Bridge volunteers to celebrate an American holiday with an international twist. At this potluck-style event, Bridge staff and volunteers provided traditional American holiday cuisine, while newly resettled refugees are encouraged to bring dishes from their home countries. Bridge also provided activities for refugee children, entrees, and beverages for all attendees. UNFoundation $1,000 funded the entirety of the event.

Kickstart at Orange Grove Center | Operation Get Active

Established in 2009, a long-term vision for Chattanooga Football Club was to have a foundation to serve the Chattanooga community and enrich the lives of children and families in economically or culturally challenged neighborhoods.  Enter Operation Get Active. So far in 2019, which includes Spring and Summer seasons and the new pilot program, Kickstart, they have served 1,350 kids from 24 schools and 10 YFD centers.

Kickstart was launched in response to a critical need for adults with disabilities to have access to team-based, socializing sports activities to improve their health and well-being. People with disabilities are at a much greater risk for serious health problems associated with a lack of exercise or physical activity. Adults with disabilities were twice as likely to be physically inactive than those without due to a number of barriers, including personal ones such as pain, a lack of energy, or the perception that exercise is impossible, or environmental ones, such as a lack of access to a safe space, transportation, or mobility equipment.

Following Kickstart’s successful summer pilot, the plan is to expand the program to include services at Orange Grove Center for 30 participants in Spring 2020. Participants will work closely with a team of coaches to learn the rules of soccer and how to engage with the game in a friendly and cooperative way. Activities will take place once a week for eight weeks and include warm-ups, team-building, socialization, and of course, soccer. Additionally, they will provide a social outing for all participants to attend a Chattanooga Football game.

UNFoundation funding will go toward soccer equipment, jerseys, field rent, marketing, and salaries.

Trauma-Informed Family Rooms at Children's Advocacy Center | Homes and Havens

Back in 2017, the UNFoundation supported a burgeoning effort dubbed Homes & Havens to create healing spaces in multiple homes for women in recovery.  They partner with local organizations that are already working to assist women out of their initial crisis. These are usually residential programs that last anywhere from a few months up to two years. After a woman is referred to them by one of their partners, they begin the process of creating a haven in her own home. It has been a big success, and they are now extending their trauma-informed design services to the agencies that help. 

The Children's Advocacy Center in Chattanooga reached out to them and asked for help designing and decorating two family rooms within their agency. These rooms are where families wait and meet with a caseworker while their child begins a forensic exam after being sexually assaulted or abused. They are also used by three different agencies within Chattanooga all working with victims of trauma and will serve multiple caseworkers, parents, guardians, and children during their visit to the Family Justice Center.

These rooms should feel like home, and embrace all that enter them. Once complete the space will be a comforting, calming, and therapeutic space for families and children during such a traumatic time. Currently, the spaces lack this warm, cozy home luster. The before photos are highlighted so stay tuned for photos of the completed project!

La Sala Digital | La Paz Chattanooga

La Paz Chattanooga is the leading Latinx and Hispanic community organization in Southeast Tennessee. Their mission is to empower and engage Chattanooga’s Latinx population through advocacy and education. They do this by connecting community members to resources that help them thrive, gain skills and become engaged in our community. Over the past two years, La Paz has expanded its classes and programs to include digital access and equity. Connecting low-income parents to digital tools ensures equal access to learning opportunities for their family. Barriers facing Latinx families extend into the realm of digital literacy. We can close the digital literacy gap and help individuals overcome barriers by providing Chattanooga's Latinx community with a mobile computer lab named La Sala Digital (The Digital Room).

La Sala Digital will have 20 Chrome books, thanks to a partnership with Tech Goes Home, the Enterprise Center’s digital inclusion program, complete with a charging station, projector and screen. The first project using the new equipment (plus an instructor of course) is a Citizenship Interview Preparation course in partnership with Tennessee Immigrant Empowerment Solutions. This is a 30 hour naturalization course that will be offered over 15 weeks and will help permanent residents prepare for their naturalization test. The second is the Plaza Comunitaria (Community Plaza) — a program in partnership with the Mexican Consulate in Atlanta. It will help United States based Latinx’s learn to read and write in Spanish and finish elementary and intermediate level education.