History
"We're trying to build a neighborhood group in our area. Could you come meet with us to get us started?"
"We have a zoning change coming up before Metro Council next week and it will be really bad for the neighborhood. What do we do?"
"The leaders of our neighborhood group are burned out. What should we do?"
In the early 1970's, there were only a few neighborhood organizations in Nashville. By the early 1990's, there were dozens of new neighborhood organizations being formed, with over 250 groups being identified in 2002. But with all of these new organizations, came many questions about just how to get started and how to deal with various problems in the neighborhoods.
The Neighborhoods Resource Center (NRC) arose out of the needs of Nashville's neighborhood organizations, the vision of its founders, and the mission and strategic planning of the Nashville Neighborhood Alliance, Inc. (NNA).
During the early 1990's, when so many new neighborhood organizations were being formed, the NNA was the primary resource and support for these new and evolving groups. As an all-volunteer organization, it was unable to provide the in depth attention and specialized services that the neighborhood movement needed. The NNA needed a sister organization to do just that.
In the mid 1990's, the United Way of Middle Tennessee was undergoing a major transition in the way that it was providing funding to Nashville area non-profits. They were moving to an Outcome Based Investment model, centered on six "Community Solution Councils." Interestingly, one of these was entitled Building Strong Neighborhoods - a designation that caught the attention of then Alliance president John Stern.
With the support and assistance of the other officers of the NNA, Stern spent considerable time participating in the evolution and definition of the work of that council - usually focusing on the issues of neighborhood self-determination and empowerment. As the Council's work became known, it was obvious that the real interests and needs of existing and future neighborhood organizations needed to be attended to by an organization that was created and managed by neighborhood leaders.
Fortunately, there were two very experienced and supportive individuals also attending those United Way meetings. Soon Rusty Lawrence, then Executive Director of the Council of Community Services (CCS), Martin Amacher, then Executive Director of Family and Children's Service and the NNA's president John Stern began meeting to develop a proposal that would fund the initial development of the NRC.
From those meetings (as well as discussions with other neighborhood leaders) came the idea that the NRC should initially focus on three major areas of neighborhood support services - Leadership Training, Community Organizing, and Information Services.
The proposal for funding was approved and on July 1, 1997 the NRC opened for business. During its early years, the NRC was incubated within the corporate structure of CCS. The Neighborhoods Resource Center was incorporated as a stand alone not-for-profit organization in 1999 and received its IRS 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt status in 2000. The NRC officially "spun-off" from CCS on January 1, 2001.
The services at the NRC have evolved to include a state-of-the-art Geographic Information System, Capacity Building Workshops, Jobs-based Economic Development, Neighborhood Technology Training and Deployment, as well as additional intensive Neighborhood Organizing efforts.
