CCDN aims to Inspire

Community Care Development Network’s founder and director Tamika Holmes said she has seen lives change through the CCDN program.

From the original group of about two dozen girls who were part of the CCDN Saturday morning mentoring program in 2014, two were named valedictorians in recent years. Girls who were on track to fail managed to get their GPAs up and, in most cases, end up graduating in the top of their class, too, Holmes said.

“Girls who were fighting every day started setting healthy goals, getting on the honor roll, trying out for sports,” Holmes said. 

CCDN operates as a network of nonprofits and churches developed for East Lake and the surrounding Birmingham community. CCDN is also a family business, Holmes said, and offers a variety of resources and services to families and students in need. 

Holmes never saw herself running a nonprofit. Growing up, she said, she had to navigate a lot of challenges and dropped out of high school. Eventually, she went back to finish school and married the man she’s still with to this day, Duane, who teaches the Diamonds in the Rough mentoring program for boys ages 11-18, which is run through the CCDN. 

Holmes started the Precious Pearls of Promise mentoring program for girls ages 11-18 who, like her, had to deal with challenging situations at a young age. 

Holmes now has two master’s degrees and is working to get her doctorate in business, with an emphasis in nonprofit management, all so she can impact as many lives of children as possible. 

The mentoring programs allow students to meet one-on-one with a mentor for 30 minutes every Saturday morning to discuss challenging life situations, in addition to getting a meal and having group talk time to discuss core subjects like goals, grades and friendships.

In spring 2019, CCDN launched Inspire, a transitional program for kids ages 18-25 as they go from childhood to learning the skills of adulthood. 

The program accepts students about to grow out of the mentoring programs, in addition to new East Lake students searching for transitional help or kids, Holmes said, “who are simply feeling lost.” 

“I love a good challenge,” Holmes said. “Our youth mentoring programs go up to 18 and a couple of the kids who have recently hit 17, they get real serious, and they pull me to the side and ask, ‘Tamika, are you going to kick me out of the program?’ And I’m like, ‘No, of course we aren’t going to do that.’”

So, she said, 2019 was time for a new plan. Inspire, which began in the spring and officially celebrates a kickoff in June, covers everything soon-to-be adults might need to know, from financial literacy and how to budget to the pros and cons of working versus going to college. 

The program focuses on practical skills like resume-building and interview preparation. Inspire will still include mentoring with volunteers that Holmes has seen to be so valuable over the years. 

“Basically, if you graduate high school and feel like you don’t have any direction, we will take you through these programs and help you have healthy direction,”she said.

Anthony Wilson, a junior at Carver High School, said he started coming to CCDN on Saturdays because he was helping out his mother. 

“If you want to learn more things, come here. If you want to have a better opportunity, come here. This is the place,” he said.

Eventually, CCDN became another home for him and he started to enjoy helping out the other children and acting like a role model.

“We wanted to assist them with their self-esteem, problem solving, conflict resolution and just give them some assistance on helping them to just understand it’s OK to just be a kid,” Holmes said.  

The East Lake nonprofit fully incorporated in 2015, weaving family values and unity into the core concept of CCDN. Holmes decided incorporating parents into the process to improve communication skills was the best course of action and, soon after, they developed a Parents Helping Parents program. “We bring in the whole family,” Holmes said. 

CCDN has other daily resources and programs offered to more than just students. One they are expanding in 2019 includes an intake program for those in need of life’s essentials.

Recently, Holmes said, she got a call from a man who just got out of prison a week prior and didn’t have much of anything, especially clothes and food, to survive with while he searched for a job and housing. He took part in their intake program so CCDN could temporarily fill those needs. 

Other programs through the week include health programs sponsored by health care providers and educators, mental health workshops, free counseling services, math and reading tutoring, parent support, spiritual classes and a family and nutrition class taught in partnership with Auburn University. 

Each year, the East Lake nonprofit also holds the free E.L.E.C.T. Teen Summit for students. It focuses on communication and leadership sessions for a weekend at Woodlawn United Methodist Church. This year, the summit will take place June 28-29, and registration opened in March.

Holmes said they are searching for more mentors and volunteers for their youth programs. All volunteers in youth programs must pass a background test. 

For more information, go to ccommunitycaredn.org.