WHAT WE DO

The goal of the Over-The-Hill Community Development Foundation is to revitalize the Over-The-Hill community and help the people and families who live there thrive. We do this by offering grant funding to passionate individuals, and forward-thinking organizations.

To be eligible for funding, they must create initiatives that:

Ensure A Safer Over-the-Hill Area
Ensure A Cleaner Over-the-Hill Area
Empower Over-The-Hill Residents socially
Empower Over-The-Hill Residents financially

We consider proposals for initiatives that positively impact the lives of residents in six broad categories:

Social Empowerment
Economic Empowerment
Rejuvenation
Smart Technology
Green Technology
Youth and Elderly Empowerment

Social Empowerment

We want to strengthen the collective voice of the people of the Over-The-Hill community. A strong voice is a powerful one. When people have a strong voice, they are confident and self-reliant. They can chart their course, improve their circumstances, and shape their surrounding environment for the better. This confidence equips them to hold themselves and those in their community accountable.

By providing grant funding, we support initiatives that empower residents to successfully solve the social issues plaguing their community. These initiatives address the causes of poverty so that residents can lift themselves out of poverty.

The social empowerment initiatives we fund focus on:

Poverty reduction
Skills upgrading
Job training
Employment opportunities
Community building
Health and wellness
Crime reduction

You can reduce poverty and create jobs for people in the Over-The-Hill Community. Donate to create jobs

Do you have an initiative that fits within our social empowerment pillar? Apply for grant funding

Economic Empowerment

Economic empowerment is about creating a path to the income that many Over-The-Hill residents need to - at a minimum - meet their basic needs. The majority of residents don’t have that level of income.

In recent years, the Bahamian government has put legislation and strategies in place to stimulate economic activity, encourage economic growth, and foster the revitalization of the Over-The-Hill area. Our goal is to help the residents of the community benefit from this favourable environment as much as possible.

The economic empowerment initiatives we fund in the Over-The-Hill area are those that will:

Encourage entrepreneurial activities and business ownership or expansion
Create jobs and hire residents
Rehabilitate and renovate homes
Redevelop land
Improve living conditions
Improve the financial literacy of residents

Create new businesses or services to boost local businesses
Partner with the corporate community to revitalize and develop the area

You can reduce poverty and create jobs for people in the Over-The-Hill Community. Donate to create jobs

Interested in developing an initiative focused on economic empowerment? Learn about Over-The-Hill tax and economic incentives

Rejuvenation

The Over-the-Hill area needs urgent attention to address widespread urban decay.

We fund projects designed to improve the physical surroundings, infrastructure, and cleanliness of the community, including:

Community clean-up and maintenance efforts
Programs that promote pride in and respect for the community
Garbage collection programs / sanitation
Housing repairs and upgrades, restoration

You can improve living conditions in the Over-The-Hill Community. Donate to improve living conditions for people in the Over-The-Hill community

Do you have an initiative that can rejuvenate the Over-The-Hill area? Apply for grant funding

Smart Technology

Because their income is low and the necessary infrastructure isn’t in place, many families in the Over-The-Hill community do not have access to the internet in their houses. The group who suffers the most from this lack of access to technology are children. Studies show that this lack of connectivity limits their education and ability to compete in a modern economy and world.

Our Smart Technology pillar focuses on helping residents, particularly kids, gain access to technology. We support initiatives that:

Provide residents with access to Wi-Fi in the community either at public institutions, tourist sites, and recreational facilities within the community
Develop apps and websites that disseminate critical information to community residents
Help residents improve their technological literacy

Please donate now to give Over-The-Hill kids the basic internet access they need to do their homework

We are accepting applications for smart technology grants. Apply here

Green Technology & Sustainable Technology

The Bahamas has a fragile ecosystem. To protect that ecosystem and for the benefit of future generations, the country must be developed sustainably. But to be successful, this development must be comprehensive and take place in all communities. None can be overlooked or left behind.

Our goal is to bring the benefits of green technology to the Over-The-Hill community. The result will be a reduction in both the energy bill burden for residents and the country's carbon footprint.

To encourage the use of green and sustainable technology in the Over-The-Hill area, we fund initiatives that:

Help residents and businesses adopt energy conservation and efficiency practices
Use or promote the use of green technologies such as solar power
Develop and preserve green spaces throughout the area
Create economic opportunities around green technologies
Promote healthy living among Over-The-Hill residents

Please donate to improve living conditions for

Over-The-Hill residents

Do you have an initiative that can rejuvenate the Over-The-Hill area? Apply for grant funding, today

Youth and Elderly Empowerment

At each end of the spectrum in any community are young people and the elderly. Both groups have tremendous gifts to offer but require special attention and support to navigate their unique challenges. Under this pillar, we direct funding toward youth and elderly empowerment initiatives to engage them in meaningful activities and improve their quality of life.

We fund programs designed to:

Identify at-risk youth or elderly and offer positive intervention in their lives.
Provide support to youth or the elderly, helping them to improve the quality of their lives
Help the young and elderly contribute to the community in productive ways
Help the young and elderly feel safe in the community

You can help at-risk young people in the Over-The-Hill community. Donate.

Do you have an initiative that can improve the lives of young or elderly people in the Over-The-Hill area? Apply for grant funding, today

“When you invite people from the grassroots to identify the solution in their own words and to create the solution with their own hands…when people create things themselves, they own them in a way that you can never, ever own that which has been created for you”

Cormac Russell, Asset Based Community Development thought leader

& Managing Director, Nurture Development

COMMUNITY-LED

The programs and initiatives we fund are those the community tells us it needs. Rather than dictating to residents what we feel the funding priorities should be and driving the direction of grant funding, we allow residents to tell us what the community’s most urgent needs are. We then invite them to design and implement the solution, and we support its implementation by providing grant funding.

ASSET-BASED – “A FOCUS ON WHAT’S STRONG, NOT WHAT’S WRONG”

Respecting the dignity of the residents of the Over-The-Hill is important to us. So, we take an asset-based approach to community development, focusing not just on needs but on strengths. We look at the gifts and talents of the individuals and organizations in the community and invite them to use those strengths to create solutions to the community's issues.

Our approach

“I believe that change comes not from the top down, but from the bottom up."

Barack Obama

Do you have a project that fits one of our funding pillars?

Apply for a grant.

Donate now

to support projects that benefit the OTH Community.