by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

The South Cumberland Learning and Development Center (SCLDC) serves area residents from the womb through adulthood, offering job placement, tutoring, hands-on gardening, counseling, and much more, all under one roof. The name, though, often comes as a surprise. To most folks, it’s the old Grundy County High School.

“People probably got sick of me saying, ‘When that building gets done,’” said Emily Partin who charted and championed the project since 2011. But the story began years before.

In 2005, Tracy City received a $500,000 grant to establish a trade school in the old high school building. “Then the recession happened,” Partin said. “The grant got lost in the shuffle.” Three mayors and the person who wrote the grant died. Partin finally persuaded the funders to honor the dormant grant and change its scope. Her vision encompassed the whole plateau, embraced lifelong learning, and advocated for whole-person development from emotional to financial and everything in between.

With donations, some large and anonymous, and the Tennessee Southeast Development District’s help acquiring grants, building rehabilitation happened. But a larger hurdle loomed. “We knew once the heat and air were on, there would be new bills.” Partin conceded. Would the SCLDC be able to find the lease paying tenants needed to make the project sustainable?

The answer: a resounding, Yes! Six paying tenants have come home to roost.

Top on Partin’s praise list is Volunteer Behavioral Health Care System (VBHCS) who renovated a suite of classrooms at their own expense to create treatment spaces. VBHCS offers therapy, care coordination, substance abuse treatment and myriad crisis services, some through grants, like the Grundy Safe Communities Coalition for drug abuse prevention.

“Because of COVID, the number of our crisis services has skyrocketed, suicides are way up, domestic violence is way up,” said VBHCS Director Ron Abrams. “We’re here for anyone who in any way needs mental health assistance.” VBHCS offers fee arrangements for those with payment challenges.

Two tenants share the former principal’s office, Safe Baby Court and Nurturing the Next. Under the guidance of the Department of Children’s Services, a judge assigns families with children age three and younger to Safe Baby Court. The program “connects family members to appropriate services…and [helps them] work a case plan,” said Teressa Calhoun, Grundy Safe Baby Court VISTA. Calhoun stressed the long-lasting impact trauma can have and the importance of “establishing permanency” for young children.

With a similar whole-child and early intervention approach, Nurturing the Next originated as a Prevent Child Abuse Tennessee initiative. The program begins working with parents during pregnancy and continues with home visits until the child is school age.

Partin shares her renovated classroom office space with the American Job Center, and Growing Roots. The American Job Center links families to good paying jobs, focusing on unemployed youth ages 16-24 and dislocated workers who have lost their jobs. Strategies include helping young people receive vocational training and subsidizing employers during the new employee training period when the cost and risk to employers is greatest.

Growing Roots founders Stephanie Kelley and Emily Ricks embrace the practice of using gardening as a learning tool to teach math, science and literacy to promote food sovereignty and whole-person quality of life of enrichment.

Growing Roots has partnered with Partin, who directs Discover Together, in an After School Initiative offering tutoring services and scholastic STEAM activities Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 4–6 p.m. “Grundy high schoolers can catch the bus to Tracy City Elementary and walk with an ASI representative from the elementary school to SCLDC,” Kelley said. For information on receiving tutoring services or volunteering as a tutor, contact her at <stephanie@growhealthyroots.org>.

Partin emphasized the importance of tutoring at the high school and community college level, citing the high community college dropout rate. A large first floor classroom doubles as a conference room and tutoring center, with two rooms on the second floor earmarked for a student center and library. To open second-floor space to the public, ADA compliance required an elevator. An anonymous donor has stepped forward to bridge that hurdle. Painting is underway. To help, contact Partin at <emilypartinfarm@gmail.com>.

What’s next? With funding in place, drying in and sealing the gym will begin in January with a new roof, windows, and doors. Plans call for the space to serve as a community center. The Alma Mater Theater stopped showing films a few years ago, lacking digital projection equipment. A donor has supplied a digital projector. Partin hopes rehabilitation of the auditorium will include a drop-down screen so the stage can also be used for live performances.

Motorists driving by the SCLDC in the next few weeks will notice garland and wreaths decorating the building. Partin bought the decorations, originally used at a large department store, for $1. The seller, an old GCHS alum, drastically reduced the price when he learned why she wanted them.

Championing the whole-person approach to overcoming generational poverty, Partin said, “People walk through the door and feel comfortable here. It’s a place for everyone and anyone. Never give up.”