Vision to Learn

Queen Smalls

Vision to Learn provides free vision services and glasses to children in low-income communities. By partnering with local community organizations, such as Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, Mecklenburg County Health, The Boys and Girls Club, and Freedom School Partners, Vision to Learn helps to eliminate barriers to vision care. Vision to Learn has provided over 25,000 vision screenings, 7,500 eye exams, and 6,000 pairs of glasses since 2018.

She Built This City

Demi Knight Clark

She Built This City empowers women and girls in the construction and manufacturing trades. The mission is to make startups, careers and exploration in these areas as interesting as the tech sector and to take on the challenge of #20Percentby2020. Through after-school programs, camps, workshops, career fairs and conferences, She Built This City empowers girls and women with trade and maker space skills who choose to enter the construction workforce.

Safe Families for Children Charlotte

Emily Kemmann

Safe Families for Children is a movement fueled by compassion to keep children safe and vulnerable families intact. Volunteer host families, family friends, and family coaches temporarily host children and provide a network of support to families in crisis while they get back on their feet. Safe Families deflects children from entering foster care, and helps isolated families thrive.

Mooresville Soup Kitchen

Brittany Holbert

In an effort to reduce medical costs and increase the mental health and overall well-being of its guests, Mooresville Soup Kitchen will be offering Fresh Start. This is a free 12-week program that will provide weight loss and nutrition education, exercise training, and group support to individuals who are clinically overweight or obese who do not have the financial stability to access these resources otherwise.

Mind Body Baby

Cynthia Wood

Mind Body Baby educates and supports caregivers through the postpartum experience because when caregivers are nurtured and knowledgeable, children have the ability to reach their fullest potential. Today, caregivers may be isolated and less likely to raise children around family and a village where it is safe to struggle. Mind Body Baby provides resources when new caregivers need community, but society is not set up to provide for this need.

Metrolina Association for the Blind

Tracy Libertino-Fegarsky

Metrolina Association for the Blind provides independent living skills directly to clients and delivers transformative accessibility solutions in Charlotte. Metrolina Association for the Blind has a new program to provide B2B consulting services designed to support any organization’s ability to hire and employ people with disabilities due to visual impairment. This program means that every employee can thrive at work and positively impact a corporation’s bottom line.

The Lotus Campaign

Beth Silverman

The Lotus Campaign was launched because the founders of the organization believe the challenge of homelessness is too pervasive for the government and nonprofit housing providers to solve on their own. The Lotus Campaign is an innovative organization dedicated to increasing the availability of housing for people experiencing homelessness by engaging the private, for-profit real estate and investment communities as partners in the solution.

iSpeak Now

Yolanda Trotman

iSpeak Now instills passion, pride and confidence in young adults so that they recognize their future is limitless. iSpeak Now does that by deploying models–including mock trials, Nzuri, and iWrite–in Title 1 schools or schools with high minority populations. Listening and speaking make up as much as 75% of adult communication but only represent 25% of the Common Core Standards. iSpeak Now understands the importance of teaching public speaking skills.

Hope to Home

Janice Hinton

The Hope to Home program provides lasting solutions to housing instability through a network of collaborative partners who believe that all people possess the capability to make transformative life choices. Hope to Home is committed to the power of “client voice, client choice” and believes all relationships should be guided by compassion, empathy, and respect for each person, partner and the community.

Galilee Ministries of East Charlotte

Toni Hagerman

Galilee Ministries builds community among the diverse population of East Charlotte and fosters cooperation among nonprofits that work together to provide vital wrap-around services. The goal of The Galilee Center is to provide a welcoming place of learning, service and fellowship. The result is a true reduction in social isolation, addressing both individual needs and organizational anxiety.