OUR STORY
South Memphis is a vibrant community full of amazing, resilient people made in God’s image, and it is also a neighborhood plagued by disinvestment, poverty, and high unemployment. Advance Memphis is a place-based, relationship-centric ministry that empowers our neighbors with knowledge and resources to help them reach economic stability.
42%
of South Memphis residents live on an income below the poverty line
$1.50–$1.75
of poverty-fighting benefits produced by Advance per $1 spent (Slingshot Memphis)
OUR PROGRAMS
Work Readiness
We offer soft-skills job training for people who are unemployed or underemployed. The program inspires and equips participants to find and keep meaningful work.
Financial Literacy
We provide classes and matched savings accounts that empower participants and provide tools to better understand personal financial management, budgeting, and more.
Job Opportunities
Through our Employment Development work, we help participants find and retain quality employment.
What sets us apart?
Deep Relationships
We serve our neighbors’ individual needs rather than simply providing services. Supported by 200+ volunteers annually, we walk with our neighbors for years, from job readiness to employment to financial stability. We know relationships are more powerful than any one program we can provide.
Trauma-informed Programming
Traditional workforce development models don’t go deep enough to address the challenges our neighbors face. When sharing their stories, the large majority of our participants reveal deeply traumatic events. Three of our staff members are trained in dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and we provide free professional counseling. This helps our neighbors handle conflicts with coworkers and workplace stressors more effectively, allowing them to keep their jobs longer.
Sharing Our Heart for Emotional Health on Channel 5
On Action News 5, our Executive Director Steve Nash shared why emotional health is a core piece of our job readiness work.
"When you're working in one of our warehouses and you get triggered, you leave. Well, then you have a short paycheck (and) are not at work the next day. ... We'd love to see South Memphis become a trauma-informed community.”
Fulfillment Services
Advance Memphis Fulfillment provides affordable, timely, and exceptional third-party logistics and e-commerce fulfillment solutions. We work hard to meet the individualized needs of all of our clients, from startups to large venture capital firms.
Shjuandales’s Story exemplifies our tagline: Stability through Relationships and Work
Volunteer
Programs don’t change lives. God changes lives through relationships. Our staff alone can’t develop relationships with every participant and graduate – we need your help.
Success Stories
