Covered in student artwork and colorful murals, a renovated basement located between Knox and Gates Places in Norwood serves as the center for Community Organized with a Vision of Excellence (COVE), a local nonprofit that will be home to Dare to Revitalize Education through Arts and Mediation (DREAM!) when the two nonprofits merge this summer.

“The combination just makes us a more powerful unit,” said Aisha Norris, who doubles as co-founder of DREAM! and program director of The COVE.

The merger of the two nonprofits is somewhat of a no-brainer. The COVE was founded by the Knox Gates Neighborhood Association (KGNA) and a group of local teens in 1988 to keep teens out of trouble. Today, The COVE’s daily operations are managed by the DREAM! staff. The COVE provides after-school and summer programs for teens, including programs in the media and visual arts, video production, web design and health and wellness classes. On Saturdays, The COVE provides martial arts and cosmetology classes.

“It’s basically a neighborhood-based program that serves the young people here in Knox-Gates,” said Lyn Pyle, co-founder of DREAM! and member of The COVE’s and the KGNA’s boards of directors. Pyle plans to maintain The COVE’s strong connection to the neighborhood, which plays a vital role there, she says.

From a financial standpoint, the acquisition of the COVE by DREAM! gives it an advantage should it seek more foundation grants. DREAM! is the bigger operation of the two, serving 12 schools across the Bronx by leading workshops in creativity, confidence and mediation. According to Norris, the “fund-raising landscape” has changed significantly over the years, and the absorption could help keep The COVE afloat.

“Most grants have a cap. They have a minimum that the organization has to be, for lack of a better word, worth,” said Norris. “There are a lot of foundations who are no longer funding effective, small programs.”

According to Pyle, both nonprofits will benefit from the acquisition, adding, “The teaching-artists that work at The COVE also work at DREAM!, so everything has already been interconnected.”

Norris and Pyle plan for DREAM! to adapt successful pilot programs first introduced by the COVE. These include young men’s and women’s support groups, which offer a place for teens to have frank conversations about issues like drug abuse, peer pressure and family life.

The COVE will benefit from DREAM! resources, including a staff of teaching artists, a board of directors, access to more equipment like digital cameras and editing software, more internships and a larger budget. With this larger budget, Norris and Pyle hope to offer larger stipends to The COVE participants, dubbed “youth producers.” Currently, they receive a $60 weekly stipend as an incentive for their involvement and creative work in The COVE programs.

The merger will be finalized in July.