Thea Bowman Center

Community education program-adult literacy/ged program: this program which started in 2009 assists people with competing high school by providing ged tutoring services. Statistics show that over 39% of mount pleasant residents between the ages of 30 - 40, do not have a high school education. Computer literacy classes are available to residents weekly. Currently, there are 16 students enrolled in classes offered twice daily. Seniors are most excited to learn computer skills. Mount pleasant is a digital divide community with limited home access to the internet or a computer. Job support is provided in partnership with manufacturing companies, hospitals and others looking to hire residents for various jobs. The center serves as the community host for job fairs and community engagement. This approach helps to connect residents to job opportunities including assistance with online job applications and resource networking.

Tbc children's program: the children's eight-week summer program provides a safe environment for 25 children (k-8th) to grow and learn. The summer program, in partnership with the food bank, provides meals for children in the community. When the children return to school, they attend an after-school program (3:15p - 5:15p) four days per week. This program is in partnership with the cleveland metropolitan school district which provides a variety of literacy, social and emotional activities to thirty 2nd through 7th graders on the nathan hale school campus throughout the school year. Mycom-my commitment, my community: this program partners with a network of over 90 community providers including schools and churches. Community partners connect with families and youth (over 2000) to ensure positive engagement to grow and learn. The focus is youth engagement and youth voice in the neighborhood along with family support.

Volunteer program: the center welcomed over 700 volunteers who provided help to all of the above programs and services. The year-round saturday hot lunch program alone is totally supported by over 350 volunteers from five partner churches. Businesses, companies, schools, churches, community residents, community social groups and sororities, support our small workforce and all programs. As a small organization, volunteers are a major asset to our mission and service to the community. Accomplishments: our mission statement (listening, learning and doing, adopted via the 2024 - 2027 strategic plan) is our guide to community engagement, connection and service delivery. Therefore, engagement and outreach during the hot meal and pantry time on saturdays, connects the center to the needs of community's residents. This connection resulted in the implementation of the food choice program. This program empowers residents to select the items they want and need rather than receive a prepacked standard food bank grocery bag containing items that often aren't used. On saturdays, community residents are invited to participate in other tbc programs and services offered such as job fairs and the center's marketplace as well as receive valuable community, city and county resource information to help them in their daily life's journey. Development of program assessment and measurements tools to better account for our program and services will be implemented january 2025. This includes satisfaction surveys to be used by all programs for feedback from participants. The center's strategic plan will be updated and implemented for the period 2025/ 2027. Increased funding over the past four years has enabled the center to increase the staffing capacity from four part-time staff to seven full-time staff to meet the demand of expanded programming.