THE BREVARD NEIGHBORHOOD DEVELOPMENT COALITION INC

As a faith-based organization, BNDC seeks after God's heart for greater justice and opportunity in communities in need. BNDC effectively mobilizes community resources to facilitate responses to poverty and related social ills. Working within targeted neighborhoods with local leaders, BNDC identifies specific revitalization needs, crafts solutions, and brings resources in the form of partnerships, expertise, and fundraising. Our work focuses on equitable distribution of resources by ensuring that people have access to the supports they need to lift themselves and their families up. We directly address generational poverty by providing programs that allow people to create a strong vision for their children's future and run programs that nurture children academically, socially and physically.
BNDC is an umbrella organization aimed at continued community growth that includes:
• Economic development through job development (social enterprise)
• Increased affordable housing
• Expansion of youth services (possibly vocational training)
• Wellness services (Evans Center, community garden)
BNDC's primary role in the neighborhoods in which we work is to gather resident leaders, local officials, and community agencies to identify needs, assets, facilitate problem solving, and implement solutions. Our flagship programs are a direct result of this approach.
Our goal at the DOCK is to help children from this low-income community compete more effectively with their peers today and provide them with critical skills and knowledge for future success. Through faith lessons and a wide array of extracurricular activities, we help youth ages 5 – 18 develop strong character and confidence. We are proud to report that no youth with regular attendance at the DOCK has been arrested or dropped out of school since opening in 2004. This is a huge source of pride for us, and for the children, teens and parents who use our center.
By keeping the housing offered at Greater Heights affordable and safe, BNDC ensures 18 families, including children and seniors, have a decent place to live. We enforce strict regulations regarding tenancy, foster close relations with the Melbourne Police Department, and facilitate participation in the Booker T. Washington neighborhood association. These things all contribute to a cohesive and secure neighborhood. Greater Heights has transformed a block of crime and blight into a pleasant, family-oriented neighborhood. The crime rate on this block has decreased by 67%. The sense of neighborliness and accountability has had a significant impact on the social fabric of the surrounding community also.
The Evans Center is boosting the economy of the Powell Subdivision of Palm Bay, and also the Bayfront Community Redevelopment Area (BCRA). It is a a place where teens will work in their first job at the market; bins are filled with healthy foods; and people get relief or preventative care as they visit the clinic.

We see our major programs as part of a holistic, strategic approach to ending generational poverty by providing people with jobs, housing, wellness, and a safe place to focus loving support on their children.
We run an after-school community drop in center for children and teens because we believe that creating a safe space in which to nourish children allows them to develop a vision for a healthy and secure future. The DOCK's academic supports, including the summer program, help children compete successfully with their peers and prepare them for higher levels of education. With their children safely occupied and cared for at the DOCK, parents are able to extend or complete their work days without worrying about their children.
At Greater Heights, we run an affordable housing complex. Opened in 2009, this project is testimony to the fact that offering decent rental housing to deserving families allows them to stabilize their family life, freeing up space in the household budget for food, clothing, medicine and more. While many of Greater Heights' residents are still living paycheck to paycheck, they are able to provide for their families and support their dreams.
In February 2019, we opened a neighborhood market in a USDA-labelled “food desert" because we believe that providing people with a way to access nutritious options will help them keep their bodies strong and better able to support themselves. The Evans Center includes a federally-qualified health clinic for the same reason. Neighborhood teens receive on-the-job training in the market. An on-site classroom is used for basic job training and health-related classes, and other community gatherings.
Our strategic choices about the best ways to intervene in the cycle of poverty can also be seen in the way we go about our work, putting our faith and values in action.
• Inclusion. We gather neighborhood residents, listen to their concerns, establish a leadership team that merges the knowledge and assets of residents and other concerned volunteers, facilitate problem-solving, and then bring resources to bear in implementing solutions.
• Partnering. We bring many organizations, churches, businesses, and individuals to the table, as well as local government, to be part of the solution. Working with so many, we are able to leverage a larger supply of resources and involve many in responding to identified needs. Just a few of our partners over the last year are: Powell Subdivision Neighborhood Watch, United Way, Community Foundation for Brevard, Eastern Florida State College, City of Melbourne Police, L3Harris Corporation, Northrop Grumman and more!
• Volunteerism. A spirit of cheerfully doing for others and giving back pervades everything we do. DOCK parents are involved at DOCK events, employees from local businesses come to mentor and tutor our children, serve on our board of directors, and engage in community clean-up efforts.

Our capabilities as an organization are guided by our Executive Director, Lynn Brockwell-Carey, who has been with BNDC since its inception in 2001. Our organizational culture begins with the values of listening to and walking alongside those in need, offering a hand up. Like Lynn, our organization is spiritually grounded, focused on top tier priorities, willing to work hard, and have fun along the way. From the board president to the youngest volunteer, we are people of strong character, dedicated to excellence, organized for maximum impact.
The BNDC board of directors is particularly strong. Comprised of some of our community's most prominent leaders in education, business, and church life, they embrace the governance role of the board and actively engage in providing for the sustainability of our organization for the long term. We have several active fundraisers on the board and all function as advocates and ambassadors for BNDC and our programs.
BNDC's board and staff are mission-focused. The organization benefits from a staff team that carries out our mission with competence and tenacity. Our DOCK Director has a way of connecting with children and teens that caused our teen program to quadruple in two years. He was recently named one of LEAD Brevard's "Top 4 Under 40". Our Property Manager has become not just “the guy to whom tenants pay rent", but also a primary source of assistance and networking for tenants. Our Development Director has a unique knack for matching donor interests with our needs as an organization. She effectively oversees diverse fundraising efforts, including two signature annual special events, grant writing and management, and a burgeoning endowment fund. One neighborhood mom volunteered for four years when her son was a young DOCK participant. After funding became available, she was hired and recently celebrated eight years as a BNDC employee and DOCK Program Aide. And – our Executive Director – leads us all with a steadfast commitment to purpose and excellence that inspires us all. (In November 2017, she was recognized as Brevard County's “Literacy Advocate of the Year" for her role in building BNDC reading programs.)
As a team, we are deeply committed to each other and to the best possible outcomes for everyone – board, staff, volunteer and those served. We strive to balance each other's strengths and weaknesses, allowing each individual to offer what they do best and then rely on others for help. While individuals do sometimes come and go, we are quite stable as an organization, allowing us to provide a consistent presence in the lives of those we serve.

Since forming as a nonprofit organization in 1991, BNDC has been successfully intervening in the cycle of poverty in the neighborhoods we serve. We built a community drop in center for children that brings in over 100 youth per year to do their homework, participate in enrichment programs, eat a healthy snack, and seek guidance from friendly and loving adults.
In January 2018, we opened a new teen center, which is not only be a place for the teens to call their own, but a place where they prepare for higher levels of education. We are proud to boast that for more than 15 years, no teen with regular attendance at the DOCK has dropped out of school or been involved in a crime. We believe that within the next few years, we will be reporting our first graduation and college acceptance rates.
The Greater Heights apartments have transformed a blighted, crime-ridden block into a attractive, thriving complex. Crime has been significantly deterred, and the positive reputation and affordable rental rates explain why there is always a long waiting list to live in one of our 18 units. BNDC recently acquired a lot next to Greater Heights so that we can build an additional six units of affordable housing.
In partnership with the Congregations for Community Action and the Powell Subdivision Neighborhood Watch, BNDC was able to establish Evans Center, Inc. From Feb. 2016 – May 2017 Evans Center operated a monthly farmer's market on the property where a locally-owned grocery store once stood. In February 2019, we opened a multi-purpose building that houses a new grocery store, a youth employment program and a federally-qualified health clinic.
Finally, during strategic planning for 2019 and beyond, our board made an important decision to develop a social enterprise of some type – a business that will allow us to create jobs and job training, and develop a stable source of revenue, all while adding to the public good. We will be researching possibilities over the next few months, looking for a social enterprise that will build on BNDC's successes and make use of our unique strengths and capabilities. This will become part of a 3 year long-range plan. We look forward to sharing our progress with the Guidestar Community!