Education

Belle Glade Teen Center

April 30, 2019 by

The first Boys Club of Palm Beach County opened in West Palm Beach in 1971 providing young males a wholesome alternative to the streets. Today, BGCPBC is the largest youth development organization in the county and offers a robust portfolio of high-yield programs for $30 per child annually—or no cost; no one is turned away due to inability to pay.

BGCPBC members predominantly attend poor performing schools in a 66% -minority school district where 56% of students are eligible for the federal lunch program. Black students in particular have the lowest graduation rates state and county wide. For young low income Black males, finding meaningful employment is also extremely difficult. This troubling trend starts early with poor academic performance, particularly from ages 13 to 18; research indicates that children who live in poverty face enormous challenges to succeed in school.

Interventions are needed to halt the progression toward dropping out of school and being unemployed or under-employed, especially at the Belle Glade Teen Center where 70% of members’ families earn less than $19,000 annually; 77% of members reside in a single-parent family or other non-traditional households; and 90% of members are Black; 5% are bi/multiracial; 4% are Hispanic and 1% are White.

BGCPBC is committed to help its current 13-18-year-old members and alumni who have dropped out of post-secondary education and are struggling with joblessness and a lack of direction in their adult lives. The resultant Teen Employability Program (TEP), combining foundational education, job readiness training, structured employment in the Clubs, and career exploration, dramatically increased BGCPBC’s teen membership base by 176%–from 500 teens in 2013 to 1,381 today. Most importantly, the program has motivated academic success. In 2017, 99% of BGCPBC high school seniors graduated on time, and 75% are now entering into post-secondary educational programs (certifications, vocational, associates or four-year college tracts).

BGCPBC maintains six elementary school-based sites in the Glades allowing members to transition seamlessly to the Teen Center. This cohesion introduces younger members to programs and staff long before they are old enough to attend the Teen Center. It’s often heard that Teen Center members are anxiously awaiting the opportunity to join the Teen Center dance troupe, obtain coveted Junior Staff positions, and attend the College Tour—for nearly all, their first time on a college campus.

Unfortunately, the Teen Center in Belle Glade is turning away needy youth every day due to lack of the facilities and staff to accommodate them. So, instead of enjoying the nurturing environment and quality programs the Club has to offer, teens are going home to empty houses or worse, turning to negative influences of life on the streets.

In June of 2018, B&GC of Palm Beach County hired Crescent to pursue NMTCs in conjunction with its overall financing plan for the new teen center. Crescent worked to secure an investor commitment along with Federal NMTC allocation. In April of 2019, Crescent and the B&GC of Palm Beach County closed on $8.4M of Federal NMTCs provided by Florida Community Loan Fund, leveraging a NMTC equity investment made by US Bank.

Utilizing land donated by the County, $5.7M in capital campaign donations, and an estimated $1.3M in NMTC net benefit, B&GC of Palm Beach County began constructing the new 14,000 sf Smith & Moore Family Teen Center. The new Center will be nearly twice the size of the current Center, allowing a 300% increase in members — from 300-900 teens from the tri-city Glades area — with average daily attendance projected to increase from 125-150 to 300 – 350 post completion.

Dedicated workspaces and youth development professionals will provide the opportunity for Career Readiness programs including:
• Career Launch programs to introduce young people to the world of employment preparation, financial literacy, and internship opportunities.
• Culinary Arts program in a new teaching kitchen complimented with a Horticultural program so that students can learn gardening to table techniques.
• Performing & Visual Arts programs in areas of digital movie making, music composition and performance, and photography.
• STEM programs empowering youth to create new solutions to real-world challenges. From curriculum in App intermediate-level coding to hands on science and engineering activities.

Lincoln Children’s Zoo

April 23, 2019 by

In 1959, Arnott Folsom had a vision to create a family destination where thousands of children and adults could interact with nature. With a donation from himself and his wife as well as the help from community leaders, Lincoln Children’s Zoo was founded. Opened in the summer of 1965, the Zoo became a place where children could get up-close to animals and surround themselves in scenic gardens.

That strong support for the Zoo from the community continues to this day, and for a variety of reasons. The Zoo donates over $250,000 of tickets, train rides and memberships each year to low income families in Lincoln. The Zoo has over 100 educational programs annually, serving over 2,000 children. The Zoo is home to Lincoln’s largest family holiday events, and is home to Nebraska’s only zoo event for visually impaired children. The Zoo is also home to Zoofari with Larry the Cable Guy, and gives free videos for children in hospitals across North America, which are seen by over 100,000 children. The Zoo also provides educational opportunities for teenagers through adventure trips to Belize, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Florida.

Lincoln Children’s Zoo is taking the first step toward the largest expansion in its history, essentially doubling the size of the Zoo, while staying true to Mr. Folsom’s vision and dream. The expansion will create more interaction with animals than ever before. The giraffe experience is at the center of the expanded Zoo and will be the third in the nation to have both an indoor and outdoor viewing deck built specifically for year-round giraffe feeding. A terraced amphitheater will be located next to the habitat where families can enjoy a snack while watching the giraffes. The tiger habitat features several viewing and encounter points for guests and an expansive area of rockwork with a water feature for the tigers to roam and play. In one of the viewing areas, children can sit in the driver’s seat of a safari vehicle next to a tiger. The vehicle is divided in half by a large piece of glass and provides space for a tiger and guest to sit side by side. Just as important, the expansion will allow the Zoo to open year-round, as a number of the expansion efforts are geared to the inside, during the cold winter months.

Lincoln Children’s Zoo is also home to Lincoln Public School Science Focus Program – Zoo School students focus on science and nature in a non-traditional setting. The School has an ongoing partnership with Lincoln Public Schools to provide enhanced classroom and learning spaces, and the expansion will include the new Education and Conservation Center including laboratories, for students with an interest in science and nature, to replace the temporary classrooms. Designed for Grades 9-12, students attend 1st and 2nd periods at their “home” high school, and the rest of the day at “Zoo School” on site. Graduates of the Science Focus Program have gone on to successful careers as scientists, medical professionals, physicists, and more.

In January of 2019, the Zoo hired Crescent to pursue NMTCs in conjunction with its overall financing plan for the expansion. With the $20M+ capital campaign winding down, Crescent worked to secure an investor commitment along with Nebraska State NMTC allocation. In April of 2019, Crescent and the Lincoln Children’s Zoo closed on $10.0M of Nebraska State NMTCs provided by Petros-Pacesetter, leveraging a NMTC equity investment made by Petros-Pacesetter.

The NMTC successfully covered the financing gap, and the newly-completed Lincoln Children’s Zoo recently opened to the public, creating 12 new full-time and 15 new part-time jobs.

Healy Murphy Child Development Center

December 6, 2018 by

Healy-Murphy Center (HMC) has been serving the educational and social needs of San Antonio’s underserved populations for over 125 years. Mother Margaret Mary Healy Murphy and the Sisters of the Holy Spirit opened what was then known as St. Peter Claver Academy in 1888, and was the first Catholic school and church for African-Americans in the state of Texas. In 1970, the Sisters of the Holy Spirit revised Healy-Murphy’s mission to focus on educating youth in crisis who were not being served by traditional school and community organizations. Today, Healy-Murphy continues to educate young people living in dire circumstances. Many have been the victims of violence and abuse; most are caught in a cycle of poverty and poor health. HMC helps students lift themselves out of generational poverty and low academic achievement through an accredited high school and GED diploma program, healthcare and wellness education, career and college readiness training, and on-campus childcare.

The Child Development Center is one of the many successful programs administered by Healy-Murphy Center. A longtime Texas Rising Star provider, a designation which recognizes centers that continually exceed basic childcare standards, the Healy-Murphy Child Development Center provides quality daycare and early childhood education to 200 low income children ages 6 weeks to 5 years old. Approximately half of these infants and toddlers are the children of teen parents attending Healy-Murphy’s high school program, which provides the added benefit of allowing parents to complete their high school education, while giving their children a meaningful head start in their educational life. The remaining 50% are the children of low-income families who qualify for the City of San Antonio’s Child Care Services reimbursement program. 80% of all children come from households with incomes of less than $15,000. On average, 73% of children served are Hispanic, 21% are African-American, and 6% are Anglo. The infant and toddler program has three key components:

Early Childhood Education: The Child Development Center infant and toddler program utilizes the best-practices in early childhood education to promote sensory, motor, perceptual and language skills. Teachers and caregivers introduce these skills through materials and activities that are both child-centered and teacher-directed. By regularly observing each child’s development, teachers and caregivers plan interactions and lessons that build on children’s strengths and individual interests.

Parent Involvement and Support: Healy-Murphy values the active involvement of parents in the infant and toddler program, both through committee and classroom participation. Parent Days help the children to see their parents as important and concerned members of the center’s environment, while providing parents with opportunities to view the child with teachers and other children.

Health Services and Wellness Education: Understanding the importance of healthy physical development in the earliest years, Healy-Murphy provides free weekly well-checks for all infants and toddlers. Through a partnership with the University of Texas Health Science Center, a nurse practitioner examines each child who may be presenting signs of illness and provides consultations to their parents. Additionally, she provides regular, broad-ranging health assessments, screenings and preventive care for all infants and toddlers.

The existing Child Development Center is located at a high-traffic intersection across from the main campus and consists of buildings that are inadequate to safely meet the needs of educating and caring for nearly 200 infants and toddlers served annually. The three main CDC buildings include a retrofitted historic limestone rock home built ca. 1850, a cinderblock building built in 1987, and a two-room portable structure that is over 25 years old. Each building is in need of extensive infrastructure repairs.

In 2016, the Healy-Murphy Center engaged LPA Architects and Malitz Construction to provide an estimate for upgrading the current facilities and an estimate for building a new facility. Because the construction estimates came in at nearly $4 million, HMC decided that it would be in the best interest of its clients and their families to build a new facility, utilizing the best practices for early childhood education facility design, and safely located on Healy-Murphy Center’s main campus. The site for the new Child Development Center has already been purchased by the Sisters of the Holy Spirit and Mary Immaculate, the founders of the school and the property owners for the entirety of the main school and daycare campuses. The Sisters of the Holy Spirit purchased the land with the intent of allowing Healy-Murphy Center to construct the Child Development Center on the site upon completion of the capital campaign.

In September of 2017, HMC hired Crescent to pursue NMTCs in conjunction with its overall financing plan for the new Child Development Center. Crescent worked to secure an investor commitment along with Federal NMTC allocation. In December of 2018, Crescent and HMC closed on $6.0M of Federal NMTCs provided by Capital Impact Partners, leveraging a NMTC equity investment made by Capital One Bank. The NMTC subsidy will allow HMC to complete the Child Development Center project and retain the existing 28 employees.

Trinity Basin Prep

November 15, 2018 by

4400 Panola Ave Fort Worth, TX 76103

Trinity Basin Preparatory (“TBP”) is a tuition-free open enrollment public charter school founded in 1998. Since opening its first Oak Cliff campus in 1999, TBP has expanded to provide a safe, disciplined learning environment for more than 3,150 students in grades Pre-K-3 through eight with five campuses in Oak Cliff and Fort Worth. The vision of Trinity Basin Preparatory is to provide an education in an environment specifically designed to meet the individual academic, physical, and emotional needs of its students.

TBP strives to provide a well-rounded and rigorous education to its students, focusing on the core academic areas of reading, writing, math, science and social studies. Expectations on TBP campuses are very high for students and faculty in order to foster an environment of achievement and success. TBP’s teachers understand the need to reach each individual student, regardless of any perceived learning barriers. At Trinity Basin Preparatory, the focus is on developing an individualized path to success, tailored to each individual child, and ensuring that every teacher, staff member, and administrator is dedicated to supporting the child’s progress.

The new TBP location will maintain its rigorous academic standards, as well as its various student/family support services. The school will offer the same free breakfast and reduced-price lunches ($0.40/lunch) that more than 90% of its existing 3,150 students take advantage of currently. The projected TBP enrollment will be comprised of 65% Hispanic and 32% African-American students, with approximately 80% of the students qualifying for free/reduced meal prices, according to Federal guidelines.

TBP participates in the Summer Feeding Program, whereby all of its campus sites, including the Panola site, serve meals to all needy children 18 years of age and under. This includes anyone under 18, not just TBP students and all meals are completely free to the children. Meals must meet meal pattern requirements and they are served to the children with adequate supervision.

Additionally, the Panola campus will be home to one of Travis Frederick’s Food Pantries. Travis, current center for the Dallas Cowboys, started a “Blocking Out Hunger” Foundation, which provides food to needy families. TBP has donated part of the Panola facility to serve as one of the pantries for the Foundation. The pantry is stocked up to once per week and the TBP staff helps ensure that the food is handed out to students and their families, ensuring that they have adequate nutrition over the weekends and holiday breaks.

In December of 2017, TBP hired Crescent to pursue NMTCs in conjunction with its overall financing plan for the new headquarters. Crescent worked to secure an investor commitment along with Federal NMTC allocation. In November of 2018, Crescent and CPD closed on $7.0M of Federal NMTCs provided by Raza Development Fund and $1.5M of Federal NMTCs provided by Capital One Community Renewal Fund, leveraging a NMTC equity investment made by Capital One Bank. The NMTC subsidy will give TBP the funds to complete phase 1 of its two phase campus plan, providing an estimated $1.6M in net subsidy that will allow the program to reach its capacity of 818 students and create 83 staff.

Talladega College

April 19, 2018 by

Talladega College is the state of Alabama’s oldest Historically Black College (“HBCU”). Formed in 1869, today Talladega College has full-time enrollment of nearly 1,200 students, 97% of whom are Pell-grant eligible, and approximately 85% are 1st generation college students.

For 150-years, Talladega has provided quality education to its students and service to its community despite having no student center facilities whatsoever. Talladega students currently have no place to congregate, no central location in which to hold student group meetings or routine events such as graduation ceremonies and dances. This is a significant disadvantage in recruitment, says President Hawkins: “on weekend nights, students have nowhere to go to unwind, and are forced to sit on the steps outside their dorm rooms.”

In the face of this significant disadvantage, Talladega’s enrollment has grown 250% since 2009. Unfortunately, the College’s housing facilities are inadequate to cope with the sheer size of the student body. As a result, Talladega was forced to spend more than $300,000 on hotel rooms for 100 students from 2014-2017.

In June of 2014, Talladega College engaged Crescent to pursue NMTCs in conjunction with its overall financing plan for a new student center and residence hall. The student center was designed to not only serve Talladega students, but also to address the myriad issues affecting the residents living in the surrounding census tract, which is designated as medically-underserved and a Food Desert; the student center offers a new cafeteria and health clinic, both of which are open to the public.

The residence hall will consist of space for 203 beds (102 rooms), inclusive of rooms for undergraduate students, RA’s (resident advisers), handicapped accessible rooms, a housing director, as well as common study areas and lounges.

Having already secured a commitment from the USDA Rural Development Community Facilities program, Crescent worked to secure a construction loan, an investor commitment along with NMTC allocation. In April 2018, Crescent and Talladega College closed on $20.0M of NMTCs, utilizing allocation provided by United Bank, National Community Fund, and Trustmark Bank, leveraging a NMTC equity investment made by PNC Bank. The Federal NMTC subsidy helped cover nearly $3 million overruns resulting from commodity price escalation in the wake of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. By covering this gap, the NMTC subsidy allows Talladega to create 46 new FTE jobs and to expand its work-release program with Childersburg Correctional Facility.

University of the Incarnate Word – School of Osteopathic Medicine

January 8, 2018 by

The population of Texas is growing at a meteoric pace, severely straining the state’s healthcare system. As of the 2010 Census, Texas ranked 47^th out of 50 states in the number of primary care physicians per 100,000 inhabitants (70.0 per 100,000 as of the 2010 Census). This figure conceals an even worse reality for South Texas. Remove Bexar County (San Antonio) from regional physician counts, and the South Texas region is left with a rate of primary care physicians per capita nearly half again as worse (43 per 100,000) as the statewide figure. Furthermore, only 10% of physicians in Texas are Hispanic, while 40% of the overall population is so classified, making for inadequate cultural competency and poorer care outcomes.

The University of the Incarnate Word decided to tackle this serious and worsening problem by founding a new medical school. The new school’s osteopathic curriculum is based on the recommendations of the Carnegie Foundation’s Educating Physicians for the 21st Century report, which outlined four goals for medical education: standardization of learning outcomes and individualization of the learning process; integration of formal knowledge and clinical experience; development of habits of inquiry and innovation; and, focus on professional identity formation.

Where to locate this needed new institution? As chance would have it, an especially attractive facility to house the new school was on offer: the historic, recently-vacated campus of the former USAF School of Aerospace Medicine at the decommissioned Brooks Air Force Base. After successfully sourcing NMTC allocation and closing on two previous projects for the university, Crescent Growth Capital was hired again by UIW, this time to attempt a combined federal New Markets Tax Credit and Texas Historic Preservation Tax Credit financing to help fund the university’s School of Osteopathic Medicine.

In December, 2016, Crescent and UIW closed on a $6 milllion NMTC financing for the new medical school, utilizing allocation provided by Enhanced Capital and NMTC equity provided by Wells Fargo. Thirteen months later, Crescent delivered $1.65 million in Texas state historic tax credits to Enhanced Capital, having authored Parts A, B and C of the Texas Historic Preservation Tax Credit application and collaborated with the San Antonio Office of Historic Preservation to have the National Park Service certify SA OHP’s School of Aerospace Medicine local historic district. The completed rehabilitation restored the 1963 main building’s deleted courtyard entry on the south elevation and leveraged its mid-century modern design to create an appealing, contemporary home for the new school.

With its School of Osteopathic Medicine, the University of the Incarnate Word is now positioned to pursue its long-range goal of increasing the number of osteopathic physicians beginning their practice by at least 145 per year, helping to ameliorate the severe regional healthcare supply deficit. UIW will enroll 150 students per class, a significant share of whom will be Hispanic; graduates of the four-year program will receive the “Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine” degree (D.O.).

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