History
Executive Summary
2007 Board of Directors
Gallatin Shalom Zone provides services to help disadvantaged residents of Gallatin’s Clearview community grow beyond their current circumstances. A densely populated inner-city neighborhood, Clearview residents face challenges of poverty, crime, and inadequate education.
By laying the plans to transform the former Union High School, which the Sumner County Board of Education deeded in 2004, Gallatin Shalom Zone is poised to partner with residents and other organizations to uplift lives and revitalize the community. Galvanizing leaders of diverse backgrounds, Gallatin Shalom Zone is bringing people together to stimulate positive change. Establishing Union High Resource Center will provide Gallatin Shalom Zone opportunities to partner with other organizations to build the physical, educational, and economic health of the community through programs that allow residents to achieve self-sufficiency. By bringing healing to the Clearview community, Gallatin Shalom Zone will be contributing to the vibrancy of Gallatin and Sumner County for generations to come.
All citizens deserve a safe environment in which to live and raise their children and grandchildren. To this end, the Union High Resource Center will be a community center where people of all ages can seek resources to cultivate skills, participate in healthy activities, and find encouragement for life’s challenges.
As the epicenter of what will become a community renaissance, Union High Resource Center will provide youth and children a safe place to study, play, get help with homework, learn computer skills, and participate in sports and recreational activities. Not only will it give parents peace of mind to know their children are safe, but this will also be a place where parents can learn skills and grow. Seniors, too, will benefit from the center’s wellness initiatives and programs designed specifically to keep them in step with the 21 st century. By partnering with organizations with successful track-records, Union High Resource Center will collaborate to solve the community’s challenges while being good stewards of contributed dollars.
Union High Resource Center ultimately will allow Clearview to experience less crime, and it will strengthen the family unit. In time, more residents will complete high school, experience a higher quality of life, and take pride in making their neighborhoods safe and attractive.
Gallatin Shalom Zone has set a goal of $3.5 million to give rebirth to the former Union High and create an invaluable resource. With community support, the Union High Resource Center will bring new life into this region.
“This is a project that needs to be done, ought to be done, cries out to be done and, the good Lord willing, will be done.”
Instrument of Peace: Shalom Zone
In 1996, a small group of Methodist pastors formed to discuss solutions to the growing problem of crime and drugs in Gallatin’s Clearview Community. Two years later, the group had expanded to include Clearview residents, laypeople from area churches, and members of the wider Gallatin community. The group’s initial focus was to beautify Clearview Park, form a board of directors, incorporate, and receive nonprofit status.
Since its inception, Gallatin Shalom Zone has offered educational programs, provided scholarships, organized health fairs, created mentoring programs for at-risk youth, and worked with city officials to improve Clearview Park. Although difficult to measure, the community benefits brought about by the passionate and selfless servant hearts of the people who lead and volunteer with Gallatin Shalom Zone are evident. Drug activity and crime in Clearview are on the decline, and pride of ownership and responsibility are on the rise.
Shalom Zone has made expanded opportunities and renewed hope within the community through the following partnerships and services:
- Awarding annual scholarships to Volunteer State Community College (nine scholarships awarded in the past five years)
- Encouraging the involvement of Habitat for Humanity in Clearview, resulting in the completion of 11 Habitat houses
- Making available free flu shots and medical screening programs
- Renovating and landscaping Clearview Community Park
- Painting the Clearview Park clubhouse
- Working alongside city officials to restore ball fields and outdoor lights
- Providing financial underwriting for expanded recreational programs
- Organizing recreational ball teams and tournaments
- Planting a community garden
- Sponsoring a dance recital and performance troupe
- Sponsoring an annual Gallatin Shalom Zone concert
- Bringing the community together through cookouts and picnics
Hallways of Hope: Union High Resource Center
Union High School rests in the heart of Gallatin’s Clearview community. Closed since 1997, the building was deeded to Gallatin Shalom Zone in 2004 by the Sumner County Board of Education. Bordering a subsidized housing project, Union High is ready for the repairs necessary to transform its hallways, classrooms, gymnasium, and cafeteria into a vibrant community center. Reborn as the Union High Resource Center, this site will be the catalyst that brings a fragmented community together, once again giving meaning and restoring integrity to its namesake, Union.
Union High Resource Center will serve the underprivileged by teaching people of all ages the skills necessary to give them hope for the future. Here, Gallatin’s longtime inner-city residents can pass along the community’s original sense of pride and values to younger generations. Equipped with much-needed physical resources, mentors, and instructors, this center will help residents become better educated and will help prepare youth for adult life.
Gallatin Shalom Zone seeks to raise $3.5 million to refurbish and update Union High. The exterior and overall physical structure of the building is sound. In addition, the City of Gallatin is poised and eager to work with Shalom Zone in transforming the building’s interior into a safe, usable space.
Staffed by volunteers from community organizations and partners who seek to enrich lives, the Union High Resource Center will serve as a lively hub of community activity and involvement. Residents will quickly realize the benefits of the center’s services and will appreciate its safety and security.
Gallatin Shalom Zone’s focus for the future is to provide the following programs and services through the Resource Center:
- Affordable day care for working parents
- After-school programs for school-age children and youth
- An internal library and study space for tutoring, homework, and reading
- Free medical screenings by volunteer health providers
- Enrichment classes for children, teens, and adults
- Computer instruction, vocation education, and training for adults
- Combined programs with other community-based groups, such as the Boys and Girls Clubs and AIM (Achievement in the Making)
“People will be strengthened by the opportunity for assistance, education, family fun, and just knowing that people care enough to open doors for a better quality of life. I hope the center will be a place for agencies to work together and learn from each other. There should be a synergy that evolves among agencies, which will translate to better service for the clients.”
Two Steps Forward: Progress in Process
Gallatin’s Clearview community is stricken with poverty and joblessness. The median annual income for the area is $21,700, and 25% of area households earn below $10,000 annually. The community also has a high number of single-parent households (30%), many residents with less-than-adequate educations (with a 51% dropout rate), children roaming the streets without parental supervision, and community concerns over drug-related issues and crime. But even with these challenges, earlier generations remember a thriving Clearview community and want to restore a legacy of dignity and hope for future generations.
The Gallatin Shalom Zone organization has seen the inroads of positive change through the effort put forth thus far. With a place to call home, Gallatin Shalom Zone, partnering with other community-based groups focused on the same vision and goals, can have a profound impact on the Clearview community and become a model for similar tight-knit urban areas.
The new Union High Resource Center embodies the potential to change for a community struggling to regain its health. Union High Resource Center will be a place where young and old alike can learn valuable life skills, receive health screenings and medical care, and discover the joy of having a safe place to come after school or work for recreational activities and relaxing with neighbors. With the help of local supporters, Union High Resource Center will be a beacon of hope to improve lives.