BCBST BlueSky Tennessee Institute Brad Leon spent much of May 2022 celebrating. He and colleague Melissa Graham traveled to high schools across Hamilton County announcing potentially life-changing scholarships to the new BlueCross BlueShield BlueSky Tennessee Institute, an innovative pilot program that condenses a 4-year bachelor’s degree in computer science into 27 rigorous months with a...
What is the “why” of middle school? Pre K through fifth grade are focused on establishing a strong foundation of reading and math skills. High school concentrates on preparing students for the next stage – further education or the workforce. Is middle school just something students have to survive (we’ve all been there!), or can...
Job Training and Leadership Program Exists to Empower People and Neighborhoods (photo: Jackson McDowell is a graduate of Build It Green) You can build the neighborhood you want to live in. Consider the power and opportunity in that statement. Take a minute and consider if you truly believe it – and why your answer matters. Chattanooga...
Gateway Scholars Pursue Success after Graduation Chattanooga is known for dreaming big. Home to the fastest improving public schools in Tennessee, community leaders have set their sights on earning the title of best school district in the state – and being the Smartest Community in the South. To make that happen, it’s vital that students...
Chattanooga is closing the digital divide with a precedent-setting commitment to internet connectivity for all. In Chattanooga, we expect that every home will have running water and electricity. An internet connection, however, is a luxury. But when schools and businesses sent students and staff home to shelter in place in March 2020 to limit the...
APPRENTICESHIPS AND UPSKILLING FOR A CHANGING, INCLUSIVE ECONOMY Within the next 10 years America will lose 70 million jobs. That reality keeps Bo Drake up at night. As Vice President for Economic and Workforce Development at Chattanooga State Community College, he knows those jobs will be lost mostly to automation – and that many of...
In the 1920s Chattanooga’s 9th Street was a music-filled hub of commerce and entertainment for the black community. Nicknamed the “Big 9,” and now named Martin Luther King Boulevard, it was simply the place to be – morning, evening, and all the times in between. But times change, and by the 60s “brain drain” was...
When a community builds a road or a park or a public building, both the integrity of the design and the level of quality express the values and aspirations of the people who live there. This public realm is the way that the community tells the world about itself. In a sense, cities are like...
As far as foundations go, the Ford Foundation is one of the biggest in the country. With over 12 billion – with a B! – in assets, Ford operates on a scale that is far removed from our relatively small, locally-focused Benwood Foundation. On the surface, it doesn’t seem reasonable to draw comparisons between the...
