HEART FOR THE CITY
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Mission Statement
Heart for the City has been working tirelessly to do whatever it takes to raise up a new generation that challenges the physical, psychological, intellectual, social and emotional walls that trap Title 1 youth. They do this by working with the WHOLE kid. Not just through sports, not just through education, not just through mentoring, not just through job training--but, a program that breaks down the walls in all of these dimensions of an at-risk youth's life. "These programs touch the youth physically-- through sports; intellectually-- through our tuition programs and our workforce development shop; nutritionally-- through our gardening program, and spiritually and emotionally-- through our mentoring and coaching philosophy that is interwoven through each and every program.
About This Cause
Poverty rates are high in the areas served by HFTC, with many households being led by a single mother. Almost 1/3 of the children in the areas live in female head of household and these families tend to have incomes below the poverty level. According to data from the Bureau of the Census, over 32.5% of families live in households led by a single mother within 85301 and 85307 zip codes, which far outranks the proportion for the County (18.8%). Hence youth in the area tend to be unsupervised. This shows in the property crime rates—which are high—at 58.2 incidents per 1,000 households in the southern portion of the zip code in comparison to 27.3% for the nation as a whole. Worst yet, there are 423.3 incidences of crime per square mile in that same area in comparison to 294.7 nationally. HFTC programs a) instill life skills that build self-esteem, personal resiliency, with increased family enrichment; b) increased academic performance through educational support and tutoring; c) reinforce team-building, rigorous physical activity, and leadership skills. Within our sports programs, all the equipment, transportation, league fees and coaches are provided to allow middle-school students to release pent-up anger through physical activity. In addition to transportation to/from practices and games, HFTC provides league fees, equipment, and coaches for all participants. Coaches not only coach the sport, but they also act as mentors while teaching leadership skills. They also often become a positive male/female role model to single parent households. HFTC works with Title 1 Schools located in the: Avondale School District, Alhambra Elementary School District, Phoenix Elementary School District, and Western School of Science and Technology. HFTC sports leagues continue to grow and develop new relationships with Title 1 schools in the Glendale, Avondale, Peoria, and Phoenix communities. This creates more opportunities for students from those schools to participate in a sport that they would normally not be able to play due to club fee costs, equipment/uniform fees, or an inability to get to the practice or game due to lack of transportation. Providing transportation is a necessary component to the mission of HFTC. Currently, HFTC operates 3 vans that travel over 200 miles per day taking students to/from school. By providing a consistent way to get to school, student absences and late arrivals have begun to rapidly decrease. In addition, through our partnerships with local Title 1 schools, we provide transportation to and from practices and games for all participants in our sports leagues to help ensure attendance and participation. In one case, prior to receiving the opportunity to attend a private school, one of our students missed over 80 days of school in one school year. By providing transportation to school and activities, her absence rate dropped dramatically and her future began to change as she began achieving higher grades and participated in after school activities. When she graduated from High School she was a National Honor Society Student. This past spring her younger sister graduated from Phoenix Christian Preparatory School. She was also NHS student, and is currently attending NAU on a full academic scholarship. Another student was living with his mom in a homeless shelter and was unable to get to school. HFTC provided his transportation enabling him to continue to attend and graduate from high school. He also received a full athletic scholarship to attend Colorado State University-Pueblo. The Heart for the City vans can be seen dropping off and picking up students Monday through Saturday as early as 6am and ending as late as 9pm, depending on student schedules. This happens Monday-Saturday each week, all year round. Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents in the past 30 years. It is no secret that obesity is associated with increased risk for many types of diseases. The areas surrounding the 85303 in Glendale are unique communities in Arizona. The households within these zip codes tend to exhibit higher percentages of youth and Hispanic populations than in Maricopa County as a whole. These zip codes also contain populations with: • Lower incomes • Lower educational attainment • Lower labor force participation • Higher unemployment rates (17.8% and 9.6%) • One out of every six of adults possessing less than a high school degree • Lack of practical job- training skills The Heart for the City Community Garden exposes kids to new lifestyle choices. The post-traumatic stress and attention disorders experienced by many of these kids create immense vitamin deficiencies. Our program features instruction on nutrition, gardening basics, and physical activity. The garden is not only a way to introduce the youth to healthier lifestyles in terms of nutrition, but also to introduce healthier life choices, overall. Community gardens require physical labor, providing relief from stress and promoting creativity. Families reap the benefits of having access to fresh, inexpensive produce on a daily basis. Sharing food from the garden, sharing recipes, and working alongside each other builds relationships, which leads to levels of acceptance and belonging. In addition, Heart for the City partners with local schools to schedule field trips to the garden where our volunteers give instruction explaining gardening concepts such as the planting calendar, how to care for potted plants and how to plant seeds. Then the kids take to the planting beds to; plant, weed and harvest the produce. Lastly, we walk with many of these kids past the middle school years and through college with our workforce development opportunities at our two coffeehouses. At Java Grounds, we have 33 kids involved in our training that provides all of them life skills such as customer service, basic money concepts and overall work ethic. All of our programs help expose lower-income, inner-city youth to hope and the possibilities unhindered by the typical inner-city walls. These physical and emotional walls are fraught with physical needs, conflict, fear, de-sensitization and hopelessness. Heart for the City strives to offer hope to low-income, urban residents in order to break down walls of a simple mastery/survival worldview to one of greater possibilities, a potential for growth, and life improvement.