Priorities

EDUCATION
1. Pressing Challenge: Only 10% of Nashville’s 21,500 public middle-school students participate in structured afterschool programming. Academic achievement scores at the end of middle-school (8th grade) is a good predictor of student college and career readiness at high school graduation. Additionally, police statistics show that juvenile crime and child victimization are more likely to occur between the hours of 3 – 7pm when young people are more likely to be unsupervised.

Initiative: To address these challenges, Impact Nashville will engage middle-school students in scholastically structured afterschool programming and positive older peer mentorship. Impact Nashville will partner a high school student with a high need middle-school student to mentor/ tutor in reading comprehension, math or general homework assignments in a structured AfterSchool Zone Alliance (NAZA) program.

2. Pressing Challenge: Third grade reading scores on the standardized Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) have decreased from the 2008 to the 2009 school year.

Initiative: To address this challenge, Volunteers will tutor/ mentor select K through 2nd grade students during the school day by reading with them using PENCIL Foundation’s Reading Partners curriculum.

ENVIRONMENT
A. Energy Efficiency
1. Pressing Challenge: Tennessee has a higher-than average level of energy intensity (consumes more energy per dollar of economic activity than most other states), and Tennessee’s residential energy consumption, as a percentage of its overall use, exceeds that of the South and the nation.

Initiative: To address these challenges, volunteers will integrate energy efficient components in the rebuild and repairs of flood damaged homes to reduce Nashville’s carbon footprint.

2. Pressing Challenge: In Davidson County, per capita residential greenhouse gas emissions are 25% higher than the national average.

Initiative: To address this challenge, volunteers will educate and encourage homeowners to increase the number of energy efficient retrofits in existing homes across Davidson County by registering homeowners for Nashville Electric Service’s In-Home Energy Evaluation Program.

B. Environmental Flood Recovery
1. Pressing Challenge: Nashville’s waterways have an abundance of flow-inhibiting debris caused by the historic May 2010 flood. The amount of debris has not, however, been identified. That lack of data and the presence of the debris places our community and environment at risk in the event of a heavy rain.

Initiative: To address these challenges, volunteers will canvas Davidson County’s waterways to identify critical areas and types of debris. Teams will then be trained and mobilized in volunteer friendly areas to remove debris. Information regarding the debris that is too large or unsafe to handle will be recorded and escalated.

C. Stormwater Management
1. Pressing Challenge: Impervious surfaces have increased by 20% over the past two decades in urban areas. Urban tree canopy has decreased by 17% over the last 20 years.

Initiative: To address this challenge, volunteers will plant 1,000 non-invasive trees within two planting seasons in targeted neighborhoods or residential properties that will have the most impact on stormwater management. The trees will simultaneously increase urban tree canopy and assist stormwater management.

2. Pressing Challenge: Over 11,000 homes were damaged in Davidson County because of the May 2010 flood.

Initiative: To address this challenge, volunteers will design and plant rain gardens on residential properties in selected neighborhoods that will have the strongest stormwater mitigation impact, improve erosion and control drainage in flood-damaged areas.

INFRASTRUCTURE INITIATIVES
Challenges:
1. Creating a comprehensive portal website for impactful volunteerism in Davidson County.

Initiative: Nashville’s Cities of Service team will partner with Proof Branding to design comprehensive branding and marketing strategies as part of an overall campaign aimed to increase volunteerism in Nashville while also raising the standards of volunteerism across all spectrums. The website, ImpactNashville.net, will first and foremost promote the Cities of Service initiatives but will also promote, encourage, and offer tools on other impactful volunteerism in our city.

2. Design education and measurement tools to teach and empower private and public agencies on how to engage volunteers in innovative and impactful ways.

Initiative: Impact Nashville will partner with the Hands On Nashville and the Center for Non-profit Management to design a curriculum for non-profits, businesses, and organizations that work with volunteers on how to create innovative and impactful opportunities for volunteers. Further, we will teach best practices for measuring project impact on the service pool, impact for the volunteer, impact for the agency, its mission and vision, and impact on the city.  In addition, these sessions will include events where members of the volunteer community can share their experiences, lessons learned and best practices.