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For the past 19 years, we’ve awarded Nashville nonprofits the title of Neighborhood Builder for advancing economic mobility and building up underserved neighborhoods.

This year, we are thrilled to name the Community Resource Center and Friends of Mill Ridge Park as the 2023 Neighborhood Builders® awardees for their work. Each organization will receive a $200,000 grant and extensive leadership training that will facilitate the expansion of programs and services addressing basic human needs and community revitalization.

This year’s awardees exemplify how much work can be done with minimal resources. For nearly 40 years, the Community Resource Center has served Middle Tennessee with no more than two employees. And the Friends of Mill Ridge Park are also working with just three employees. At Bank of America Nashville, we are honored to help both expand their work to create sustainable, long-term success.

The Community Resource Center

The Community Resource Center is the only Middle Tennessee nonprofit leading the charge to combat and end hygiene insecurity in our community. Hygiene products are not currently covered or provided by government assistance. The lack of available resources inspired the Community Resource Center to become the singular supply chain for hygiene and other household products in our region. Through their efforts, they established a vital network that encompasses over 200 nonprofits, faith-based organizations, and 10 school districts. This network effectively removes obstacles to personal hygiene by directly delivering essential resources to the communities they serve.

With the help of Neighborhood Builder grant funding, the Community Resource Center plans to drastically scale the efficiency of its operation to manage the successful movement of more than 2 million non-food basic needs products each year.

Friends of Mill Ridge Park

Friends of Mill Ridge Park works to overcome the history of inequitable access to the outdoors in the Antioch community by providing free, year-round, daily access to park programs and services. With two-thirds of southeast Davidson County residents living in apartments where outdoor space is limited, the new 622-acre park allows thousands of kids, adults, and families to socialize, recreate, and serve together while receiving the physical, mental, and social benefits of time outdoors.

As neighborhood Builders, Friends of Mill Ridge Park plans to expand their outdoor programming to be an outlet for the community to gather for food, music, outdoor games, and park activities.

With the help of Bank of America, the nonprofit will be able to double the number of people it serves with outdoor recreation, conservation, education, and cultural enrichment.

Thirty-three nonprofits have been selected as Neighborhood Builders in Nashville since 2004, with the bank investing $6.6 million into these local nonprofits.