The Inspiring Hope Learning Center
…bringing hope to our community one child at a time.
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11 |
The Purpose: The Inspiring Hope Learning Center (IHLC) exists to help children in the Old Town Community to break the cycle of poverty in Jesus' name and become all they were created to be.
The Plan: The IHLC Program provides…
The Distinctives: The BTG Child Development Program (CDP) is …
The Plan: The IHLC Program provides…
- After school and summer programing - tutoring, spiritual & character development, social interaction, snacks and inspiration.
- Ongoing family support through building relationships, training for parents and caregivers, and help in navigating the many support services offered in our community and beyond.
- Families will commit to being in the program through a nominal weekly cost and volunteer work to develop "buy in"
The Distinctives: The BTG Child Development Program (CDP) is …
- Christ-Centered: ensuring that every aspect of the IHLC is done in the Name of Jesus and out of His commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves. Children and their families will experience the life transforming Gospel message and love of Jesus Christ without coercion or manipulation. The ultimate hope is that each child and their family will come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
- Holistic: providing educational, emotional, physical, socio economic, and spiritual support to children and their families.
- A Continuum of Care: building relationships to assist children from cradle to career & calling, helping them to become all that they were created to be. This program will help equip and inspire children with the skills, knowledge, character, and opportunities they will need to thrive in life.
- Child Focused: concentrating all services and activities toward helping children and their families rise out of poverty and live lives that flourish.
- Community Based: coordinating and connecting existing organizations and services with participating families to meet their needs. Instead of “recreating the wheel”, the IHLC staff and volunteers will act as advocates in helping children and their families navigate service providers such as nonprofit organizations and government agencies and form local partnerships to work together for those in our community.
- Relational: seeking to build healthy relationships across all interactions within the families, staff, sponsors, and community partners based on unconditional, sacrificial and selfless love.
- Winston-Salem is the hardest city in the United States for children to escape childhood poverty according to a Harvard study in 2015.
- 1/3 of all children in Winston-Salem live in poverty, and Winston-Salem is 20th in the nation for highest childhood poverty rates according to a survey reported in the Triad Business Journal in June 2019.
- 3rd Grade Literacy is the number one determinant of whether a child will graduate from high school. In 2019, only 26.4% of 3rd grade students at Old Town Elementary School passed the End of Grade (EOG) Tests for reading.
- Old Town Elementary has grown from an “F” to a "D" as a school under state guidelines in 2022. The school also exceeded growth, but there is still a need to continue to provide support to continue that growth.
- The effects of Covid-19 and the subsequent closing of schools has had a substantial impact on our students and their proficiency in basic educational knowledge and skills for years to come.
