Metanoia

Leadership development (myla - metanoia youth leadership academy):the metanoia youth leadership academy offers year-round leadership development for students in the most disinvested neighborhoods in north charleston. We offer after school programming for 45 students during the school year and 80 students during the summer months. We serve students from 1st to 12th grades and offer internships for college graduates that have been students in our programs. Metanoia students outperform their peers on standardized testing and attend college at a much higher rate than their peer groups. As a part of this effort, metanoia also operates a youth employment initiative that provides high school students practical job experience. During the summers metanoia operates a children's defense fund freedom school where 94% of scholars either gain (82.3%) or maintain (11.6%) their reading levels during the critical summer months.

Economic development:metanoia seeks the economic revitalization of the communities we serve that is beneficial to the current families within those communities. We have done this through offering training to minority contractors, starting student run small businesses, providing a local manufacturer a low interest loan for expansion to create additional jobs and working on the revitalization of a downtown commercial strip through the neighborhood. We have provided below market space to several black entrepreneurs to help support their business growth along this corridor. Metanoia is also working on the adaptive reuse of the former chicora elementary school a 57,000 sq/ft facility that will house a cristo rey high school and an auditorium for use by the neighborhood. Metanoia is also working with local municipal leaders to support small business infrastructure within the communities we serve.

Call to action: metanoia works with the citizens of the community to mobilize community voice around issues that they identify as important. The organization has worked to organize the community to get a new elementary school built, change neighborhood zoning laws, and achieve mitigation funding from a rail facility being built adjacent to the community. Metanoia also hosts volunteers that work in partnership with community residents on projects and programs that benefit the community. Any organizing of the community around issues of importance is non-partisan and issue oriented.