Groves Educational Foundation Inc

The mission of the Groves Educational Foundation is to provide community based educational services to seniors, youth, families and entities in the areas of continuing education, community development, wellness, personal and academic enrichment to improve the quality of life for each participant. Our aim is: "Helping people help themselves so that they can help others."

The Groves Foundation has been around since 1995 making contributions and enhancing our community. Our earlier work has been conducted through partnership with other community groups. But during the past 5 years we have begun to function as a lead agency utilizing other agencies to accomplish our goals. While we wear the title of educational foundation, it serves as an umbrella for the diversity of services that we provide to our community, city, county and region. The educational label signifies the responsible we assume as a foundation to provide the educational platform needed to equip our community with the necessary skills they require.
Need Statement:
The Groves Educational Foundation (GEF) is a community based non-profit organization that supports itself through community volunteers and donations. It is governed by a board of 7 and shares an advisory board of 60 members with other community groups. Although the community identified as a high crime area & suffers from a high degree of vandalisms & burglaries; the community despite it handicaps has rallied with GEF to provide a stable sense of community by keeping the grounds clean, providing community celebrations & observances. Ongoing activities are provided for all ages. Last year over 1500 people participated in the activities provided.

The Groves Educational Foundation is located in Crockett, Texas the county seat for Houston County, a rural East Texas Community. With a population of 7,000 people. Crockett often serves as the lead agency in addressing the county's problems. Because of our size, our community resources are often viewed as limited. Collaboration among the different agencies and the securing of outside funding has become a "must" for our community. In answer to this need, the school district, local churches and other community agencies are committed to providing continuity of services for all our youth and adults. Currently, with the exception of the school district, and local churches, there is only one community based organization with a designated community based site, that serve youth. Subsequently, due to transportation and lack of resources, many students, parents and community members are often not able to take advantages of the services offered by this organization.

The Groves Educational Foundation, was once the site of the Black School for the City of Crockett. It is located on three acres of land directly across from, a private HUD affiliated project and a block from one of the City of Crockett's Housing Authority Project. Also two other Crockett Housing, HUD affiliated projects, are within one mile of the center. These housing complexes (based on numbers supplied by the housing authority) are occupied by approximately 800 tenants. This area is one of the most densely populated and maintains the lowest socioeconomic status of any area in the City of Crockett. Based on past police reports, it was identified as one of the city's highest crime areas. The Groves' Foundation is dedicated to revitalizing this community and continues to actively provide and sponsor numerous community based projects. While we may not reach the goal of being all things to all people at all times… we are fully committed to providing situational stability to those that desire to utilize our resources to assist them in accomplishing their short and long range goals.