Neighboring Project

Published: 11/10/2008 12:00:00 AM

This year, KCDC Resident Services and Project GRAD Knoxville began working together on the Neighboring Project, a new and innovative program involving public housing residents. Participants of the program earn community service hours -- a requirement for many public housing residents -- while preparing to become volunteers in their children’s schools. They attend weekly workshops focused on becoming more involved in their children’s education and their community. During the sessions, presenters inspire and challenge the participants to define their family dreams and goals and to identify ways to achieve them. One of the main themes of the sessions has been that working together as a community helps build strong families.

Alvin Nance, Executive Director and CEO, Knoxville’s Community Development Corporation

Neighboring Project
This year, KCDC Resident Services and Project GRAD Knoxville began working together on the Neighboring Project, a new and innovative program involving public housing residents.
Participants of the program earn community service hours -- a requirement for many public housing residents -- while preparing to become volunteers in their children’s schools. They attend weekly workshops focused on becoming more involved in their children’s education and their community.
During the sessions, presenters inspire and challenge the participants to define their family dreams and goals and to identify ways to achieve them. One of the main themes of the sessions has been that working together as a community helps build strong families.
As parents complete the workshops, Project GRAD helps them assume volunteer positions within Knox County Schools or other organizations that promote strengthening communities.
This program is a win-win for all involved -- the parents and children who live in public housing, the schools, and the community at large.
Like William Butler Yeats, I believe that “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” I hope and believe that this initiative will “light many fires.”

KCDC’s mission is to improve and transform neighborhoods and communities by providing quality affordable housing, advancing development initiatives and fostering self-sufficiency. For more information, call 865-403-1100 or visit http://www.kcdc.org.