Our name—Beacon of Hope—describes what is desperately needed in the communities we serve. Poverty, family dysfunction, lack of education, welfare dependency, juvenile delinquency, substance abuse, and crime are conditions that span multiple generations. Yet for people caught up in these circumstances, encountering just a gleam of hope for a different kind of life can start a process that interrupts the pattern and leads to a changed future.

Beacon of Hope serves the Old Fourth Ward with a holistic approach to early childhood and school age education, human services, and community development (including affordable housing). We began as an outreach ministry of Tabernacle Baptist Church in 1996 and now operate as an independent 501(c)3 organization grounded in the conviction that community strength begins with families that have emotional security, economic independence, a sense of purpose, and a confident vision of the future. Beacon of Hope’s Renaissance Learning Center serves over 300 “multi-cultural” children, youth and their families in a national and state accredited environment. We have acquired 13 parcels of land for the purpose of community development and affordable housing programs, implementing a strategic plan to possess the land and eliminate absent and irresponsible landlords in order to reface a community plagued with destructive elements.

Our service area has a significant concentration of low-income, single-parent households headed by females who dropped out of school. Criminal activity (resulting in homicide and incarceration) is increasing among our children and youth. The poverty rate is 37 percent. Median household income is less than $13,000 a year according to US Census reports, and almost certainly has declined below that level due to an influx of evacuees from some of the most impoverished areas of New Orleans. Many young mothers of the area are at least the second or third generation of their families to quit school, become an unwed teen parent and try to get by on the frayed edges of society. They have no job skills and do not know how to parent effectively. Their economic survival depends on working the system of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and other forms of public assistance. For their children, family life is an unstable, day-to-day, even hour-to-hour drama with little positive guidance, supervision or emotional support. The crime and drug culture of urban street life is never far away. Our motto is “Educating the Child, Empowering the Parent, Engaging the Community … Shaping the future.” This holistic view embraces the entire community, offering proactive help that has the power to turn difficult situations into positive possibilities.

Plans and construction are in the making for residential development (market and affordable housing) along the Boulevard Corridor at 516, 518-520, 522, and 526 Boulevard, single family homes on Rankin Place and Rankin Street, and commercial-residential development at 542 Boulevard, NE, for the purpose of community revitalization and Company sustainability.