- A group opportunity. Invite your friends.
-
1 person is interested
Celebrate Working-Class People: Volunteer in Tennessee Town
ORGANIZATION: Tennessee Town NIA
Please visit the new page to apply.
- A group opportunity. Invite your friends.
-
1 person is interested
The Tennessee Town NIA was Topeka’s first NIA, established in 1976 to revitalize a historically significant area of Topeka that had been the home of working-class individuals and families since its inception in 1879. Those first residents were freed slaves who migrated west from Tennessee as part of the Exoduster movement and put down roots in Topeka. From that beginning 135 years ago, Tennessee Town has become a diverse neighborhood that continues to embrace its socioeconomic soul.
Tennessee Town now is starting down a new road to revitalization that will include new and rehabilitated housing, infrastructure improvements, historic preservation, and small business and greenspace development. For more on where Tennessee Town is headed, please go to http://www.topeka.org/planning/neigh_area_plans.shtml and click on Tennessee Town. We would like to partner with your business on various neighborhood projects and events to help us to achieve those goals, which not only improve Tennessee Town but all of Topeka. Would it be possible for your business to help us through donated materials, labor and/or financial contributions? Some projects that Tennessee Town soon will sponsor include:
- Housing rehabilitation (painting; siding, shutter, door installation; yard work, etc.)
- Infrastructure (sidewalk and alley clean up, painting house numbers on curbs, etc.)
- Historic preservation (work at the former Colored Women’s Clubhouse, now the headquarters of Living the Dream, Inc. For information on Living the Dream’s efforts, please see http://cjonline.com/news/2014-02-09/early-cultural-hub-re-emerges-topeka-neighborhood)
- Small business development (training classes, internships, grant writing, etc.)
- Greenspace development (Lane Garden pocket park revitalization, cleaning vacant lots, etc.)
- The annual Tennessee Town Basketball Tournament, to be held this August at King’s Court, SW Munson and Lincoln Sts. Our NIA secretary/treasurer, Sandy Lassiter, helps to coordinate the tournament. For more information on the tournament, please see http://cjonline.com/news/local/2011-08-13/basketball-tourney-positive-energy
More opportunities with Tennessee Town NIA
No additional volunteer opportunities at this time.
About Tennessee Town NIA
Location:
1195 SW Lincoln, Topeka, KS 66604, US
Mission Statement
The Tennessee Town Neighborhood Improvement Association (NIA) is one of 20 NIA's in the city of Topeka, Kansas. The Tennessee Town NIA was the city's first NIA, established in 1976. NIAs are composed of census tracts defined by the U.S. government that identify low- to moderate-income (LMI) populations and areas and are located within boundaries established by the city of Topeka. The city's Department of Housing and Neighborhood Development (HND) administers federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds that come to Topeka as an annual U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) entitlement through and are based on those census tracts. Those funds primarily benefit NIAs.
The city, other public and private partners and NIAs work with those funds, along with local and state funding streams, to improve the city's LMI neighborhoods, which face challenges ranging from deteriorating/dilapidated housing to crime/safety, decaying infrastructure, vacant structures/lots, and lack of small business development, among other challenges.
Description
The Tennessee Town NIA represents a historically significant neighborhood in Topeka, Kansas, Tennessee Town, which was founded in 1879 by freed slaves who migrated from Tennessee as part of the Exoduster Movement of that period. It was established as, and has remained, a proud, vibrant low- to moderate-income neighborhood that hosted the first black kindergarten west of the Mississippi River in the 1890s and the Scott brothers, two attorney siblings who argued the Kansas portion of the historic 1954 Brown v. Board U.S. Supreme Court case. Today, Tennessee Town features a diverse population of young and old and all ethnicities that wants to preserve its working class past and present as it moves forward.
CAUSE AREAS
WHEN
WHERE
1195 SW BuchananTopeka, KS 66604
DATE POSTED
April 11, 2014
SKILLS
GOOD FOR
- Kids
- Teens
- People 55+
- Group
REQUIREMENTS
N/A