FCC Helps Louisville's MOLO Village with NTI program
MOLO Village Community Development Corporation, a non-profits grassroots organization founded in 2011 in west Louisville’s Russell neighborhood, is committed to addressing the complex issues that Russell Neighborhood residents face. Our primary goal is engaging residents, focusing on Beecher Terrace public housing residents, to define holistic approaches to community development.
During the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) implemented an improved systemwide, non-traditional instruction (NTI) impacting over 96,000 students. In doing so, JCPS recognized the need to develop an equitable system to engage educationally disadvantage students and that high education standards should be established for all students.
JCPS deemed that community educational hubs would be best suited to address issues of inequity and allow students the opportunity for increased support, access to WI-FI, needed computer hardware, and nutrition through provided breakfast and lunch. JCPS contacted MOLO Village to become one such education hub for youth which builds on MOLO’s existing goal to engage and support Russell children and youth through education and social services by expanding education through tutoring and non-traditional learning programs.
In the past year, MOLO leaders enhanced its computer lab to accommodate remote learning and received grants and donations for Chromebook and desktop computers and offset three months of operating costs. It is a goal to provide a tutorial program when school is not in session.
With an enrollment of 15 youths in grades first through fifth, MOLO has the capacity to support and educate 30 youths Monday through Thursday weekly following the JCPS school calendar and adhering to the curriculum mandates and reporting requirements. The enrolled students live in two or more priority neighborhoods. Neighborhood elementary schools, Brandeis, Byck, Roosevelt Perry, and Coleridge Taylor, refer elementary students to the MOLO Education Hub.
MOLO Village is providing provide breakfast and lunch for students assuring food access and addressing transportation issues. The staff works to nurture youth participants including providing hand-over-hand instruction as needed, following curriculum as provided by Jefferson County Public Schools. A grant from First Christian Church of Louisville has been utilized to offset staffing, food, rent and supplies costs.
This is our fourth year of providing a wholeness grant to this great organization. To learn more about MOLO Village, please visit their website.
The wholeness grant used to fund this ministry was made possible through your faithful financial support of our church and its ministries and help fund a variety of efforts to make our world a better place.