Building a Better Nashville for All Communities
The mission of the Nashville Promise Zone (NPZ) is to foster intensive partnerships among Nashville’s organizations that serve high poverty neighborhoods, improve the collective impact of their service and address revitalization in a collaborative way.
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded Nashville with a Promise Zone designation. This designation provides 10 years of support including priority access to federal investments in six subzones that further communities’ strategic plans, a federal liaison to help local leaders navigate federal resources and several full-time AmericCorps VISTA members to strengthen the capacity of the Promise Zone initiatives.
The NPZ is a federally designated area that comprises 46-square miles, including the neighborhoods just south, east and north of Nashville’s central business district.
The NPZ is an Area of Service
The NPZ operates with the combined efforts of nearly 100 supporting partners, and are broken into six subzones, each with its own captain.
Subzone 1 Captain: Martha O’Bryan Center
Subzone 2 Captain: Edgehill Neighborhood Partnership
Subzone 3 Captain: Woodbine Community Organization
Subzone 4 Captain: Conexión Américas
Subzone 5 Captain: Urban League of Middle Tennessee
Subzone 6 Captain: St. Luke’s Community House
These subzone captains supporting partners work together, with the help of federal resources, to provide needed resources in each subzone.
The NPZ is an Area of Opportunity
The NPZ partners address six primary goals:
- Increase access to quality affordable housing
- Create jobs
- Increase economic activity
- Improve educational opportunities
- Improve community infrastructure
- Reduce violent crime
The NPZ is an Area of Need
The NPZ represents a quarter of the county’s overall violent crimes, including nearly half of its homicides and a third of its robberies. And overall, the NPZ reports a poverty rate of 37.61%. NPZ residents face low post-secondary education levels, as well as infrastructure and safety concerns that make upward mobility, affordable housing and employment more difficult to obtain.
Through the Promise Zone and the AmeriCorps VISTA programming, local organizations have received $7 million in grant funding and have formed workgroups to collaborate on areas such as education, employment and housing. Need Access to The Nashville Promise Zone Resource Guide? Click HERE
(I.) Affordable Housing Focus: Preserve and increase access to affordable housing options for residents of the NPZ.
- Action Step 1: Track Detainer Warrants by Zip Code within the NPZ and connect impacted Zip Codes to appropriate housing resources and tools.
- Action Step 2: Partner with housing counseling agencies to provide up to 300 hours of housing counseling education to residents within the NPZ by December 2022.
(II.) Crime and Education Focus: Decrease youth violence within the NPZ and ensure children and young adults have quality early childhood experiences.
- Action Step: Connect 100 teens and young adults within the NPZ to creative learning experiences by December 2022.
(III.) Workforce Focus: Support NPZ residents age 16 and older as they pursue degrees or certifications above a high school diploma that enable them to obtain middle-skill jobs and increase economic activity in the community.
- Action Step: Connect 100 NPZ residents between the ages of 18 to 45 to workforce training opportunities, and economic development tools by December 2022.
If you would like more information regarding the workgroups, or how your company organization can join and get involved with the NPZ, email MDHA Special Project Manager Brian Sexton at bsexton@Nashville-MDHA.org.