The Community Haven
The Community Haven building on North Hickory Street
Bushtown · Chattanooga, Tennessee

House by house. Street by street. Block by block.

The Community Haven is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit working to make Bushtown — the first Black incorporated township in America — a decent and safe place to live.

See our programs Support the Haven
Map of the historic Bushtown community
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Chattanooga's poverty rate, against a 12.3% national average
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Homes in the Bushtown community, per 2021 Census data
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Of those Bushtown households living below the poverty level

Built on ground with a history worth knowing

Established in 2017, The Community Haven sits on a 5-acre site at 815 North Hickory Street — once the St. Francis Catholic School for African Americans, later the Tennessee Correctional Workhouse, and later still the 28th Legislative District Community Development Corporation, which closed in 2012.

A legacy given a future

According to a 19th-century news account, Bushtown was the first Black incorporated township in the United States. Since 2015, The Community Haven has worked to give that legacy a future — through education support, workforce development, and affordable products and services for the neighborhood.

The gap we exist to close

Bushtown's poverty rate runs well above the national average — and that gap is the reason The Community Haven exists.

11,000 homes, one block at a time

That's the scale of the neighborhood we work in, per 2021 Census data — and why the work has to happen house by house.

More than a quarter, below the line

Of Bushtown households living below the poverty level — the number that shapes every program on this page.

What we do in the neighborhood, every week

These are four of eleven programs. See all programs.

Community Patrol volunteers

Community Patrol

Car, foot, and bike patrol focused on violence prevention, staffed by unarmed security personnel who also train community volunteers across the neighborhood.

Learn about the patrol
Food and clothing donations

Feed & clothe the community

Canned goods and produce through our Food Bank partnership, plus a thrift store offering affordable, gently used clothes and household items.

See what's available
Youth development program

Youth development initiative

An eight-topic work-readiness series run over four weeks, delivered by facilitators twice a week in cohorts of ten — building real skills for teens headed into the workforce.

View the curriculum
Girls Academy participants

Girls Academy & G.R.I.E.V.E.

A teen academy that advocates for girls affected by trauma, alongside G.R.I.E.V.E. — support and resources for families who've lost a loved one to homicide.

Get involved

The people who make up the Haven

Staff, volunteers, and neighbors — the block, in the words of the people who show up for it. Keep scrolling: this wall lays itself out one course at a time.

Community Haven program participants
Program day, North Hickory Street
Community Haven team member
Community patrol staff
Community Patrol, on shift
Food program volunteer
Community Haven event
Neighbors at a Haven event
Community Haven facility
815 North Hickory Street