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On June 17, 2019, the National Trust announced a new HOPE Crew (Hands-On Preservation Experience) project at the South Side Community Art Center, a National Treasure. This groundbreaking institution was instrumental in launching the careers of renowned African American artists when many galleries would not exhibit their work, including poet Gwendolyn Brooks (the first black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize) and Life magazine photographer and filmmaker Gordon Parks.

Thanks to a partnership between the Fund II Foundation and the National Trust’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund (AACHAF), a team of African American young people will gain valuable vocational experience while performing needed repairs at this iconic Chicago landmark.

Over a period of several days, crew members will conduct masonry cleaning work on the Art Center’s front facade under the direction of Tom Vacala with Restore Masonry and with overall guidance from Ed Torrez, an architect, National Trust advisor, and principal at BauerLatoza Studio.

Other past and upcoming HOPE Crew activities made possible with Fund II support include preservation projects at the Nina Simone Childhood Home in Tryon, North Carolina, the Pittsburgh home of author August Wilson, the home of John and Alice Coltrane in Long Island, Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and six-week intensive internships for architecture students enrolled at two HBCUs—part of Fund II Foundation’s commitment to diversifying STEM fields of education.

On June 11, 2019, the National Trust's HOPE Crew (Hands-On Preservation Experience) wrapped up a project at The Alonzo Herndon Home Museum in Atlanta, the historic home of Atlanta's first black millionaire and founder of Atlanta Life Insurance Company.

Under the umbrella of the National Trust’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, HOPE Crew performed work on the property as part of its partnership with the Fund II Foundation to engage African American youth in learning preservation trades at sites tied to African American achievement and activism.

The crew members were provided by Greening Youth Foundation, a black-owned nonprofit youth corps based in Atlanta. Between May 30 and June 11, 2019, the all-African American team carefully repaired, scraped, and re-painted the back porch and elements of the home's front facade under the supervision of a local master crafstman.

Other past and upcoming HOPE Crew activities made possible with Fund II support include preservation projects at the Nina Simone Childhood Home in Tryon, North Carolina, the Pittsburgh home of author August Wilson, the home of John and Alice Coltrane in Long Island, Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and six-week intensive internships for architecture students enrolled at two HBCUs—part of Fund II Foundation’s commitment to diversifying STEM fields of education.

On May 2, 2019, the National Trust announced that with support from the Fund II Foundation, it will broaden the scope of HOPE Crew (Hands-On Preservation Experience) during its five-year anniversary to focus on engaging African American youth in learning about preservation trades at sites tied to African American achievement and activism. The support from Fund II represents the largest investment in HOPE Crew's history.

The first HOPE Crew project undertaken with Fund II support will be at the Nina Simone Childhood Home (a National Treasure of the National Trust) in Tryon, North Carolina. The seven HOPE Crew participants for the upcoming project, provided by the Schenck Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center of North Carolina, will be at the home for several days, repairing and repainting its exterior. The project is an important first step in preparing the home for extensive rehabilitation and reuse.

Fund II's support of HOPE Crew in the upcoming year is tied to two of the foundation's key pillars: preserving African American cultural heritage and introducing young people to occupations in STEM-related fields. According to Linda Wilson, executive director of the Fund II Foundation, "The projects celebrate iconic figures, instill community pride, and also provide the opportunity to educate around them and their achievements for generations to come."

Other HOPE Crew activities planned with Fund II support include preservation projects at the Pittsburgh home of author August Wilson, the John and Alice Coltrane Home and Chicago's South Side Community Art Center (both National Treasures of the National Trust), and six-week intensive internships for architecture students enrolled at Historically Black Colleges and Universities Morgan State University and Tuskegee University.

On April 22, 2019, HOPE Crew (Hands-On Preservation Experience) began a preservation training at the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site in the Anacostia neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The previous week, the five-person youth corps had their initial orientation and training at Fort Washington, and they will continue their work at Folger Park, Marshall Hall, and Harmony Hall through the beginning of May 2019.

The project will continue through the beginning of May, in partnership with Latin American Youth Center (LAYC) and the National Park Service. The corps was organized by LAYC, which works to empower diverse young men and women through multicultural, comprehensive, and innovative programs like HOPE Crew.

The work at the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site (also known as Cedar Hill) includes maintaining the home's cultural landscape and viewshed. This former home of America's most renowned abolitionist has been a place of inspiration for over a century. In 1917, the National Association of Colored Women launched a national campaign to save the Douglass' home and inaugurated the black preservation movement.

Following the viewshed restoration at Cedar Hill, the corps will begin work at Folger Park in Washington's Capitol Hill neighborhood.

Today, HOPE Crew announced Fort Monroe National Monument in Hampton, Virginia, as the site of their 100th project. In partnership with the National Park Service and the Fort Monroe Authority, HOPE Crew will deploy a team of national experts and young, local participants from The Corps Network’s member corps to rehabilitate Fort Monroe National Monument’s historic quarters this summer.

“The success of HOPE Crew highlights a hands-on approach to saving places that—beyond addressing deferred maintenance at historic sites—is making a positive difference in the lives of future preservationists and the communities where they serve,” said Stephanie K. Meeks, president and CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. “We’re excited to continue broadening the preservation movement with our partners and to kick-off HOPE Crew’s 100th project at Fort Monroe National Monument, a National Treasure and site of one of our country’s most extraordinary chapters in the fight for freedom.”

At Fort Monroe National Monument, known to many as “Freedom’s Fortress” for being the place where more than 500,000 African Americans took the first step in ending their enslavement during the American Civil War, HOPE Crew participants working on former living quarters built in 1834 will have an opportunity to discover the site’s history while acquiring advanced preservation skills that make them competitive in the job market, including: foundation stabilization; wall assessments; re-pointing; masonry; painting and refinishing; and carpentry.

“We cannot understand the Civil War—the most significant event in American history—without knowing what happened at Fort Monroe,” said Terry E. Brown, National Park Service superintendent of Fort Monroe National Monument. “In helping us preserve historic Building 50 this summer, HOPE Crew participants are also helping us commemorate the courage of Civil War-era freedom seekers and allowing future generations to understand the full American story.”

Since the start of the program in 2014, HOPE Crew (named for “Hands-On Preservation Experience”) has completed 99 projects around the country, trained more than 600 young people and veterans in preservation trades and recruited over 2,000 volunteers to protect places that are significant to their communities. In just three years, aligning the National Park Service with The Corps Network membership of over 130 Corps across the country, the program has contributed 80,000 hours and $14.3 million worth of preservation work at an array of historic sites, including: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s boyhood home in Georgia; Painted Desert Community Complex in Arizona, the last remaining structure in the National Park Service designed by modernist Richard Neutra; and the White Grass Dude Ranch in Montana where cabins were restored for use as a future training facility for the Western Center for Historic Preservation.

“We are proud to have played a role in the development and growth of the HOPE Crew program and are excited to celebrate the 100th project at a site bearing as much historical significance as Fort Monroe,” said Mary Ellen Sprenkel, CEO of The Corps Network. “The mission of Corps is to provide young adults the opportunity to learn job and life skills through service to our country. HOPE Crew allows Corpsmembers to also learn about our country’s history and engage in keeping America’s past alive.”

At a public event on Monday, June 19, 2017, 1PM ET, at Fort Monroe National Monument, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the National Park Service, the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Fort Monroe Authority, and The Corps Network will launch the program’s 100th project and honor the Juneteenth holiday that celebrates the ending of slavery in the United States. The public and members of the media can join a roster of special guests, government officials, local leaders and HOPE Crew participants to learn about what makes Fort Monroe National Monument an essential landmark of African American history, as well as the wide-ranging importance of engaging young people across the country through preservation work on public lands.