Begin Anew of Middle Tennessee (Formerly CWJC)

Begin Anew of Middle TN was formed to empower individuals to overcome the barriers of poverty by providing education, Bible study, mentoring and connections to resources. Set in a Christian context, our holistic approach provides adult education programming and a life changing community to individuals living on salaries below a living wage. Begin Anew Programs are offered in Nashville, Madison, and Williamson County (Franklin). We have added 2 additional sites in the past year totaling seven program sites. Begin Anew of Middle TN is an independent non-profit ministry with church partners of various denominations who provide volunteers as well as financial support. It was founded in 1997 under the original name Christian Women's Job Corps (CWJC) in partnership with the Southern Baptist's Women's Missionary Union (WMU) and the Nashville Baptist Association and became a separate 501(c)3 in 2003. Central to Begin Anew's mission and ability to provide programs are volunteers who come alongside each student as a teacher, tutor, mentor, and childcare provider. The significant role of volunteers in our agency is one of the reasons for our success. Volunteers are highly trained, supervised by a Program Director, and as committed to their volunteer assignment as they would be if they were a staff member. Agency wide, there are over 290 volunteers with half serving 2 to 4 hours weekly. It is in this nurturing environment that students are facing the challenges of life, setting personal and educational goals for themselves and their children and succeeding in reaching them. Research shows there are four reasons a person chooses to leave poverty and move to economic self-sufficiency. They leave because: first, it becomes too painful to stay, second, they have a vision or a goal, third, education enables them to obtain a skill or develop a talent, fourth, a key relationship is formed. Begin Anew provides solutions for all of these elements.