As Nashville grows bigger each day, the city continues to rise up to meet the ever-evolving needs of its residents, new and established. With missions ranging from empowering the homeless to uplifting the sick and bedridden, these local nonprofits are committed to serving our city and leaving it better than they found it.
Music Health Alliance
In 2013, Tatum Hauck Allsep set out to combine two of Nashville's biggest industries: music and healthcare. As the founder and executive director of Music Health Alliance, Allsep and her team are committed to demystifying healthcare for individuals in the music industry and their families. Whether it's helping clients find an insurance plan that meets their budget, providing confidential guidance through the healthcare system, or connecting clients to resourcesboth medical and financialthat they need, all of MHA's services are free.
'It's the right thing to do,” Allsep says. 'We are very passionate about the idea that healthcare is a right and not just a privilege.”
In just three years, the nonprofit has served more than 4,600 patients across the nation and has secured nearly $8 million in medical bill reductions for its clients. For each dollar donated, MHA is able to turn that into $30 worth of healthcare resources. On March 1, MHA will host its third annual First and the Worst fundraiser at City Winery, featuring singers and songwriters, like past guests Garth Brooks and Lee Brice, performing their first and worst songs written. musichealthalliance.com
Ride for Reading
While cycling and literacy might seem an unlikely pairing, Ride for Reading has been encouraging children in low-income neighborhoods to read more and stay healthy since 2008. Founder Mathew Portell, a former Metro Nashville teacher and avid cyclist, started Ride for Reading after a student told him he didn't have any books at home to read. The organization collects grade level-appropriate and age-appropriate books throughout the year at local bike shops (and other businesses) and distributes them, via volunteers on bicycles, to Title I schools.
'It's grown from just a group of guys who wanted to do a good thing for kids into this national movement,” Ryan Storm, interim executive director of the organization, says.
To date, Ride for Reading has delivered more than 300,000 books to more than 235 schools in more than 33 cities across the country. Each May, during National Ride for Reading Week, the organization encourages volunteers across the country to host book deliveries to local schools in their own communities. Funds raised during this time are used to create more healthy living and literacy programs in schools. rideforreading.org
Musicians On Call
Although its roots belong to New York City, it was only a matter of time before Musicians On Call made its way to Music City. The organization, started in 1999 by entertainment industry veterans Michael Solomon and Vivek Tiwary, brings live and recorded music to patients in their hospital rooms, offering the healing power of music to those who need it most.
'When you have a musician playing live music for a patient in a hospital room, you can see, instantly, the room transform,” Musicians On Call president Pete Griffin says. 'Instead of it being a patient in a hospital room, it's just a regular person there again with their family. Everyone's able to smile, to sing along, to laugh and to clap, and [to] feel normal for a moment.”
The organization, which will celebrate 10 years in Nashville next year, is known for its celebrity volunteers, including Kelly Clarkson, Blake Shelton, and long-time supporters Lady Antebellum. With programs in 20 cities nationwide, it takes more than just celebrities to make this operation tick, though. Thanks to the help of local musicians in each Musicians On Call community, the organization has now played for more than half a million patients. musiciansoncall.org
Renewal House
Since 1996, Renewal House has served addicted women and their children by offering residential and outpatient recovery services. 'Women were appearing in court and they needed treatment,” Pamela Sessions, chief executive officer of Renewal House, says. 'As they were going to treatment, there was nowhere for their children to go, and many of the children ended up in foster care.” A Davidson County Juvenile Court referee and local attorney saw what was happening and decided there had to be a better alternative. Together, they started Renewal House, the first organization of its kind in Nashville, to allow mothers and their children to stay together while the mothers seek treatment for their addiction.
Renewal House, which has helped more than 650 mothers and their children, offers women safe housing, individual and group therapy, case management, life skills, and vocational support, along with other vital support services.
'You go from seeing someone who is anxious and hopeless,” Sessions says, 'to seeing someone who can actually say, ‘I'm a good parent. I feel good about myself. I'm able to take care of us.'” renewalhouse.org
Room In The Inn
When Father Charles Stroebel offered the homeless gathered outside East Nashville's Holy Name Catholic Church a place to sleep on a cold night in 1986, he had no idea it would eventually grow into an organization that, last year, would provide 32,000 beds and 63,000 meals to Nashville's homeless. Room In The Inn, best known for its winter shelter program, partners with local congregations between November 1 and March 31 to provide the homeless dinner, a warm bed, breakfast in the morning, and a sack lunch to take with them. Today, the Room In The Inn model has been replicated in 33 cities nationwide.
'If we're selling anything,” executive director of RITI Rachel Hester says, 'we're selling hope.”
What started as one man's act of kindness three decades ago has expanded into a full range of support services for the homeless. From bus passes and showers to GED classes and veterans support programs, RITI is committed to creating solutions for displaced individuals. 'You can't fix [homelessness] in one night,” Hester says, 'but you can make somebody's life better.” RITI will host its Nashville Unlimited Christmas Annual Benefit Concert on December 13 at 7 p.m. at Christ Church Cathedral. roomintheinn.org
Martha O'Bryan Center
What began in 1894 with one woman on a mission to serve the poor has now become one of the city's most established anti-poverty non-profit organizations. The Martha O'Bryan Center, named after its founder, primarily serves the residents of two of Nashville's largest public housing communities, Cayce Place and Napier Place. The organization offers more than 20 programs centering on education and employment opportunities and family support services. Taking what president and chief executive officer Marsha Edwards calls a 'cradle to career” approach, O'Bryan offers everything from early childhood education programs and academic student unions at local high schools to job training and adult education classes.
'We believe, to help families leave poverty, it really takes a whole family approach,” Edwards says.
As the organization, which served more than 10,000 individuals in 2015, continues to expand its breadth of services to meet the needs of a growing city, Edwards reinforces O'Bryan's commitment to its mission. 'We're helping families get a great education,” Edwards says. 'We are helping people with employment, and we're supporting families in helping them grow their wellbeing.” marthaobryan.org