About Us
Harvest Hands is a catalyst for holistic Christian community development working alongside our neighbors to further education, healthy living, spiritual formation, and economic development in South Nashville.
OUR PROGRAMS
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Every day after school, 100 kindergarten through eighth grade students flood the halls of Harvest Hands to receive help with homework, participate in extracurricular activities, and interact with positive role models. Students enrolled in our afterschool program participate in age-appropriate lessons and activities related to language arts and literacy, math skill development, socio-emotional learning, leadership development, and spiritual formation. Volunteers and contract workers spend time with students teaching a variety of lessons, including music, coding, poetry, gardening, science, and more.
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Data suggests that participation in team sports is an effective way to help students build confidence and resilience and find healing from adverse childhood experiences. Our Empower Sports program provides affordable, local sports leagues and wellness opportunities for youth in South Nashville. We currently offer a variety of sports leagues for students in kindergarten through eighth grade, annually serving 250 young athletes. Empower Sports also hosts clinics and/or camps throughout the year for each of these sports to improve the fundamental skills of the players.
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Our work-based leadership program students receive financial literacy training, 21st century skill building, job readiness training, and opportunities to earn academic scholarships upon graduation. They also have the opportunity to tour colleges, learn about trade school options, and spend time with mentors who share about their education, career, and other life experiences.
Our work-based leadership program employs more than 20 youth and young adults each year through our social enterprise, Humphreys Street, and generates revenue that is reinvested back into the community and the students we serve. When a local teen applies for and receives a job at Humphreys Street, they are trained in the art of roasting coffee and creating handcrafted body products and are given the opportunity to earn money in a neighborhood where few positive economic opportunities exist.
Humphreys Street Coffee has three coffee shops near downtown Nashville, including one
inside Bridgestone Arena. Humphreys Street also has a robust production facility and wholesale client base that has quickly doubled the number of students employed by our own social enterprise.
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Harvest Hands is committed to providing support and resources to children and families that have experienced trauma in their lives. Along with counseling, we provide families with education and tools to proactively guard against traumatic experiences. We believe in the resilience of our kids and that access to mental health care can be a pathway to healing from trauma and adverse childhood experiences.
How it Started
In 2007, Dr. Howard Olds, the pastor of Brentwood United Methodist Church, was invited to meet with the neighborhood association known as the South Nashville Action People (SNAP). Dr. Olds felt strongly that the church should utilize its resources to make an impact in an under-resourced community in Nashville. The invitation to share his holistic vision of community development at the community meeting led to a partnership with the neighborhood. Brian and Courtney Hicks were invited to lead the community development efforts and moved into the South Nashville neighborhood in the summer of 2007 and launched Harvest Hands Community Development Corporation.
In partnership with Brentwood United Methodist Church, Harvest Hands purchased an abandoned home on Wingrove Ave. near the fairgrounds (which was known for being a threat to the community). After removing the condemned home from the lot we held a fall festival and invited neighbors to share their hopes and dreams for the community. The overwhelming feedback of neighbors was that the neighborhood needed positive alternatives for students after school to keep them out of trouble and to help guide them to a better future. The feedback we received led to the creation of our after school program in 2008. We purchased a second home directly across from our lot and we partnered with the local elementary school to begin our after school program out of the home. The students named the site of our first location ‘“The Harvest House” and this laid the foundation for our work in South Nashville. For the first nine years–a majority of our work was focused on the Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood.
2007 | Purchased the Harvest House where we began our after school program the following spring.
2008 | Our first running club, the beginning of our healthy living program.
424 Humphreys Street — The original church which is now our Wedgewood Houston Coffee Shop
The Beginning of our Coffee Roasting Program for Humphreys Street Coffee
Our Vision
for the Future
In 2007, Harvest Hands began with a vision—to partner with our neighbors for wholeness in South Nashville. We believe in the inherent dignity of our neighbors. Regardless of what the statistics say about poverty and crime in our community, we refuse to see people as statistics. John M. Perkins often says that “the worst form of poverty is when people believe they have nothing to offer.”
Over the past 18 years, we have focused on empowerment over charity by developing leaders and pathways out of poverty. With the creation of our social enterprise, Humphreys Street Coffee and Soap, we became known as the place in our community that creates jobs for teenagers and develops leaders. We have employed over 150 students over 18 years, including several who have gone on to serve in leadership roles within our organization; we celebrate our program graduates who have gone on to work for other coffee companies, graduated from college, and even started their own businesses.
Over 2,000 students have participated in our afterschool program and our sports leagues since we began in 2007. Our commitment to being a catalyst for healthy living, education, spiritual formation, and economic development has been realized in the lives of our students and their families.
However, our work is not done and there is a lot more to do as we look ahead to the next five years (and the next 15 years). We plan on opening a new Harvest Hands afterschool location each year for the next nine years to develop more leaders and help students grow academically, socially, and emotionally. We will expand our work-based leadership programs by growing our own social enterprise and partnering to create additional opportunities. We will build a counseling center to assist students and their families in dealing with trauma and offer guidance toward healing. We will expand our Empower Sports program and continue to offer opportunities for healthy living in our own community.
Join us in our journey for wholeness by visiting our connect page or emailing us at info@harvesthandscdc.com