Operation Restore Dreams

Portsmouth, Virginia is a beautiful, historic city in the heart of Hampton Roads. With arguably the most ideal location of all of its neighboring cities, Portsmouth boasts stunning waterfront views, large international ports and an ever present military anchor that drives the economy even during hard economic times. Unfortunately, these attributes... are often overshadowed by public perception. Portsmouth's somewhat negative image is more than just a public relations problem, but rather is largely due to the fact that it has one of Virginia's highest crime rates per capita while having one of its lowest high school graduation rate. Couple those dubious statistics with exceptionally high rates of poverty, illiteracy, and single-parent homes, and the public sentiments toward Portsmouth begin to seem understandable. Therefore, in order to regain Portsmouth's reputation as one of Virginia's great cities, our community must ask what are the root causes of these statistics and how can we improve them. Both of these questions are important to be answered together. Often times however, in situations like this, only the latter question is addressed. Too often the result is cities trying to solve the crime problem by providing more funding to the police department or solve the graduation rate problem by providing more funding to the school board. Certainly the intent is good and sometimes the results are deciphered to show some improvement in the targeted statistics. However, unless the cause is understood, the problem cannot be addressed efficiently, resulting in little actual improvement. Operation Restore Dreams believes strongly that each of the aforementioned negative statistics Portsmouth possesses share a common root cause many children in Portsmouth are not being reared properly, and when these children grow to become adults, they too often become contributors to the negative statistics. More alarming still, when these children reach adolescence, they often have children of their own, effectively creating a cycle ...Read More