Tag: Philanthropy

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Home Sweet Home

Written by Connor Spelta

Trish King, the Construction Office Manager at Habitat for Humanity of Greater Chattanooga Area talks about her experience working with volunteers and homeowners in the local community.

A public park, a mountain view, colorful homes, and bustling construction sites: these are all things you wouldn’t typically expect to see in a community with subsidized housing, but thanks to the work of the city and Habitat for Humanity of Greater Chattanooga, this is the scene at the Villages of Alton Park.

Construction Office Manager Trish King has seen firsthand the effect that they’ve had fostering a community in the neighborhood.

“We are not building one house for one person in isolation,” said King. “It’s that there are people around here who’ve been through the same process, it’s being part of something bigger.”

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Rising Culture

Written by Connor Spelta

Alex Newton spoke with Shateria Smith and Shane Morrow about Responsive Initiatives for Social Empowerment (RISE)—a black-led nonprofit organization that has been serving the community with free programming, concerts, and communal events since 2011. They hosted the Levitt BLOC Music Series during the month of September, which consists of free concerts for the public every Sunday.

For the most part, a drive down Taylor Street in East Chattanooga looks like any other street in the city’s poorer river-to-ridge region. The blur of closely packed industrial, commercial and residential lots aging into historic status is interrupted by a sprawling 14,000-square-foot complex adorned with stained glass windows and statues. 

The over 100-year-old building, formerly the Solid Anchor Church, hosts Chattanooga non-profit Responsive Initiatives for Social Empowerment (RISE). The black-led non-profit was started in 2011 by current CEO Shane Morrow and his partner.

Known originally as Jazzanooga, the organization began with a single-day Jazz festival as a part of the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga (CFGC). After the initial success of the festival, the organization spun off from CFGC into the independent non-profit it is today.

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