Hidden Gems: Meet Crystal Blaylock of Elmington Elevates

Today we’d like to introduce you to Crystal Blaylock

Hi Crystal, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I grew up in a family of volunteers – Girl Scouts, PTA, Lion’s Club – these were all organizations that my family spent significant time being part of and volunteering with. It was an important way that we spent time together and built our community of friends. When I went to college and joined Tri Delta Sorority, this passion continued when I had the opportunity to visit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, TN as part of a Leadership Conference. Walking through the walls of the hospital and seeing the joy the staff and patients felt during what could and should be such a solemn and scary time changed me.
I returned to college and became passionate about telling the story of what I had experienced and raising money for the kids. It was incredible! I was Director of Philanthropy for Tri Delta and started Up ’til Dawn at my University. When I graduated from college I was laser focused on continuing my work for St. Jude as a member of the staff. I consider my time fundraising for St. Jude to be like non-profit boot camp. I learned from the best in the world at telling stories and raising funds. The foundation of what I still do to this day is deeply rooted in the training they gave me.
As I married and started my own family, I worked at other national health-focused non-profit organizations growing my skills and love for this work. But, when my family relocated back to Middle Tennessee, where my husband grew up, I was presented with the opportunity to work at Elmington Elevates as staff member number 1. Growing an employee engagement program, which had only recently become a 501c3 was an exciting challenge. Knowing the way that Elmington does business and invests in communities through Affordable Housing Developments showed me a commitment to serving others that I respected.
Through trial and error, as well as asking a lot of questions within the community about the specific needs, it became clear that walking alongside low income families was where we needed to invest. Elmington Affordable and Elmington Property Management had spent years serving families through homes, with business offices often becoming community resource centers to help direct families to food banks or identifying other services for low-income families. Through all of this, ElevateU was born. ElevateU provides free after-school childcare for children in grades K-5 in Metro Nashville Public Schools.
This mission and program felt deeply personal to me. I am the daughter of a single-mom that really struggled. If it wasn’t for grandparents that were able to fill the gaps, I would have been home alone after school. I wouldn’t have had help with my homework or access to dance lessons that gave me an outlet for self expression. My mom was lucky to have parents that were able to fill those gaps. As an adult and a mom to two girls, I recognize that our community truly saved us from a very different situation in my youth. That privlege has not been lost on me.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Has the road to ElevateU been smooth? Hardly.
When I joined Elmington Elevates we had some fundraising efforts in place, as well as an incredible community event, ToyFest. We actually just hosted our 10th Annual A Very Merry ToyFest in December 2024. Nearly 300 kids participated in holiday fund and were able to pick a toy they loved from our Toy Village.
But what we didn’t have is a clear impact program to serve the community. After talking with key stakeholders a few different activities were attempted – high school student mentoring, volunteering as readers in elementary schools, and finally an after-school club for kids in grades 3-5 once a week for an hour. We named our after-school club Club Elevates. I eventually partnered with 3 schools in Nashville and had a team of volunteers each week participating in programming with our kids. Topics covered cooking, the environment, engineering, entrepreneurship, and more! It was incredible! Our volunteers would spend 3-4 weeks on a topic and suite of activities with the kids, then we would go on a field trip into the community to pull the concepts together. This was going well until March 2020 when Metro Nashville Public Schools shut down for a few weeks due to COVID.
However, a few weeks turned into months. I found myself without access to our kids and serving as a non-profit without a community. It was confusing and heartbreaking. The last thing I wanted was for the 75 kids we had developed relationships with to think that we had just forgotten about them because we were no longer together in the school. It was time to get creative.
Because we had contact information for families, we were able to set up weekly Zoom calls with our students. Sometimes we would have 10 kids, sometimes 2 or 3. But, myself and our volunteers committed to the time slot to ensure our kids knew we would show up. More often then not, we would simply listen to them talk about the games they played or movies they had been watching. Like so many, we were all starved for community and those calls provided that. Our volunteers sent care packages, with permission from the parents, to our students. We had games, books, and handwritten notes included.
As a working mom myself, I knew it was an immense privilege to be working at home during that time. I had a kindergartener and a 5th grader and it was….tough. I thought about the parents that were not so lucky – those working in retail or other jobs that took them out of the home with most childcare and schools were shut down. It was this personal experience that led me and Elmington Elevates to where we are today with ElevateU.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
I am proud of what we have built at Elmington Elevates through our after-school program, ElevateU. This program began with 35 students in August 2021 at a single school in Edgehill – Carter-Lawrence Engineering Magnet School. We currently have 114 students at two schools – Carter-Lawrence and Alex Green Elementary.
This has been possible because of our commitment to partnerships. We are able to keep our operational overhead low because we operate out of Metro Nashville Public School buildings at no cost. We’ve enrolled in a program with MNPS Nutrition Services to provide a hot after-school meal to our kids. Our organization has over 40 Corporate Sponsors that invest time and volunteer hours to ElevateU. And, we work within a family of for-profit companies within Elmington that create a family space for Elevates to operate and grow. Elmington created something special by adding a non-profit organization to their families of companies. It allows employees to work together to be part of something larger than themselves through individual giving and volunteer opportunities. It’s special and it works.
Further, Elmington Elevates is part of community organizations and coalitions of other like-minded organizations that are focused on serving children and families in Nashville.
Simply put, we know that we are better together!
But, I would be remiss if I didn’t share the significant financial benefits and savings of ElevateU. During the 2024-2025 school year, ElevateU is savings our families over $400,000 in childcare costs because our program is free to them. We know that the savings to the community go beyond that because employers will see fewer missed productivity hours because parents are able to work knowing they have safe, reliable childcare. Essentially, there is a cascading financial impact that extends to small business and governments when parents are able to work when their children are in safe, reliable childcare situations.
Lack of access to after-school care disproportionally affects women, keeping them out of the work force or limiting job options due to a limitation on the hours they are able to work. Research studies have reported that parents lose over $5,500 annually due to childcare access impacting their ability to work and childcare costs families between $4-6,000 annually for school one age students. Th
Further, after-school programs increase academic success and reduces juvenile crime rates by up to 70% for school aged-children. We believe this is only increased by the inclusion of mentorship in our programs with consistent, caring adults investing individually in our students.

Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
Early in my tenure at Elmington Elevates, I was gifted the book, “It Didn’t Start with You,” by Mark Wolynn. It was an interesting understanding and perspective around generational trauma. This book led me to explore more books and professionals that study trauma in children and it’s affects on generational poverty. I came to learn more about ACES (Adverse Childhood Experiences) and how that could inform our work with youth in ElevateU. There have been professionals at Vanderbilt and Metro Nashville Public Schools that have come to provide training for our staff and volunteers about successfully service youth with trauma and trauma informed care.
I love Sharon McMahon’s Now Here’s Where It Gets Interesting Podcast. Sharon is a former High School Government teacher, now a podcast host and author. The people she interviews and the historical stories she researches and uncovers are delightful! She shares about unsung heroes and facts that are simply not widely known. I love her approach to fact based learning, regardless of whether or not you “like” the facts. But she tells these stories with such care and humanity. I really love that.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.elmingtonelevates.org
• Instagram: @elmingtonelevates
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elmingtonelevates
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/96232035/admin/dashboard/
• Other: https://www.elmingtonelevates.org/give