The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, a charitable organization dedicated to enriching the quality of life in Middle Tennessee and beyond, announces $2,664,888 in grants to 439 local nonprofit organizations as part of the 2021 annual grantmaking process.

The grants will benefit nonprofits in 32 area counties: Bedford, Cannon, Cheatham, Coffee, Cumberland, Davidson, DeKalb, Dickson, Fentress, Franklin, Hickman, Houston, Humphreys, Jackson, Lincoln, Macon, Maury, Montgomery, Moore, Overton, Pickett, Putnam, Robertson, Rutherford, Smith, Stewart, Sumner, Trousdale, Warren, White, Williamson and Wilson counties.

The Ledger is publishing the grant recipients alphabetically. This week is A-N. The remainder of the list will be published in Dec. 31 edition.

The top awards categories were: Human Services (Children & Youth/Women & Men/Seniors/Emergency Needs) (24% of the grants), Arts and Humanities (17%), Education (15%), and Animal Welfare (12%).

Grant recipients in Davidson County include:

• 100 Black Men of Middle Tennessee Inc.: 100 Black Men of Middle Tennessee, Inc. provides resources to further the academic and social development of Black male students.

• A Step Ahead Foundation of Middle Tennessee: To enhance the client experience for 300 women accessing free, long-acting reversible contraception.

• abrasiveMedia: Project Awake is a theatrical assembly program that helps students prevent bullying, sexual assault, violence and self-harm in their schools.

• Actors Bridge Ensemble: To train five emerging theater directors of color in a 10-month professional training program that culminates in a public showcase.

• Advocates for Women’s and Kids’ Equality (AWAKE) Tennessee: To provide evidence-based education to at-risk youth and women on self-advocacy, leadership, and creating change in their own communities.

• AGAPE: To provide funds for emergency expenses for domestic violence victims.

• Agape Animal Rescue: To prepare 80 abandoned dogs for adoption through the provision of vaccinations, preventative medications and spay/neuter surgery (if needed).

• AgeWell Middle TN: To provide trusted community resource information, personalized phone assistance and scam prevention shredding service for 5,700 older adults and caregivers.

• ALIAS Chamber Ensemble: To fund the ALIAS in the Community program (AIC), which presents classical music and educational programming to schools/community organizations.

• Alive Hospice: To highlight the importance of advance directives and provide a tool that increases comfort around end-of-life conversations.

• ALS Association Tennessee Chapter: The General Grant Program provides $500 grants to help defray the cost of eligible expenses associated with living with ALS.

• American Red Cross: To help at least 300 families in Middle Tennessee receive the help they need to recover from home fires.

• Amputee Blade Runners: To provide free sports prosthetics and support services to 12 amputees seeking to engage in an active lifestyle.

• AN Sports Club d/b/a Achilles International - Nashville: To cover the costs for five Achilles Athletes and their Volunteer guides to participate in local and out-of-town races.

• Andrew Jackson Police Youth Camp: Provide six weeks free camp for at-risk youth 8-12 years (summer) Shopping at Christmas for same.

• Aphesis House, Inc.: To provide emergency support for 22 ex-offenders returning to the community and assist them on their crime-free path to self-sufficiency.

• Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville: To provide education programs that empower artists and creative organizations with entrepreneurial skills and resources to build thriving, sustainable businesses.

• Ascension Saint Thomas Health Foundation: To bring lifesaving screening mammography to 72 uninsured/underserved women in Bedford, Macon, and Davidson counties through a mobile mammography outreach.

• Assistance League of Nashville: To provide new Standard School Attire to 3500 economically disadvantaged elementary students attending Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS).

• Autism Tennessee: This program will offer a single location for individuals with ASD to find Pre-Employment, Autism-Ready Employers and Independent Living Supports.

• Backfield in Motion: Continued support adding additional students, especially targeting female enrollment, serving at-risk students from some of the lowest performing MNPS schools.

• Bellevue Middle School Edible Learning Lab, Inc.: Our Hydroponics Healthy Harvest initiative seeks to equip middle-school students and families to build and maintain their own hydroponics systems.

• Belmont University: Watkins Community Education provides instruction in art and design disciplines to enhance participant understanding of human expression.

• Bethany Christian Services: Safe Families for Children provides temporary safe homes for children during times of crisis for vulnerable families.

• Bethlehem Centers of Nashville: To provide healthy produce to 40 Seniors participating in the Active Seniors Club as well as meals at session activities.

• Big Brothers Big Sisters of Middle Tennessee: Increasing access to and depth of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Middle Tennessee’s youth mentoring services.

• Blind and Charity Fund Downtown Nashville Lions Club: Blind and Charity Fund Downtown Nashville Lions Club.

• Book’em: At-risk elementary students will participate in book clubs to build literacy skills and home libraries.

• Boys and Girls Clubs of Middle Tennessee: To develop healthy attitudes and skills for adolescents (8-18) through Boys & Girls Clubs’ SMART Girls and Passport to Manhood.

• Bridges for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing: Support language (ASL and English) and social/emotional development in Deaf/HH children from birth through school age.

• Building Lives Foundation: To provide housing and rehabilitation to 17 veterans suffering from or at-risk of homelessness due to addiction or mental illness.

• CASA Nashville: To recruit, train, and supervise volunteers to advocate in court for the safe, permanent placement of abused and neglected children.

• Catholic Charities of Tennessee: To assist seniors in living independently at home by providing case management, transportation, healthy food and supplemental health care needs.

• Centennial Park Conservancy: To support over 150 free artist performances at Musicians Corner, an equitable, family-friendly concert series in Nashville’s historical Centennial Park.

• Centerstone: Expand existing therapeutic groups focused on suicide prevention to care for adults, adolescents and LGBTQI clients who experience suicidal ideation.

• Charis Ministries, Inc: To deliver 600 boxes of food provisions to households unable to buy food or access a food bank.

• Christian Cooperative Ministry: To provide healthy and nutritional food, water and hygiene products for an average of 325 homeless people per month.

• Christian Womens Job Corps of Middle Tennessee dba Begin Anew: To provide healthy meals to 70 adult learners and children biweekly for 43 weeks and transition child care to children’s programming.

• Communities In Schools of Tennessee: Providing wrap-around or integrated students supports to ensure that students at-risk of failure can be successful in school.

• Community Resource Center: To provide basic hygiene kits to 1000 families experiencing barriers to access.

• Conexion Americas: To provide college access programming and case management for 195 immigrant and refugee high school students in Southeast Nashville.

• Corner to Corner: Script to Screen takes students through the process of making a movie, from writing their script to filming it.

• Country Music Foundation, Inc.: Words & Music is a curriculum-based lyric-writing program that creates opportunities for teachers and students to collaborate with Nashville songwriters.

• CreatiVets: To empower disabled veterans to heal through free community-based art and music programs, workshops and classes.

• Crossroads Campus: To provide urgent veterinary care for dogs and cats in our shelter program.

• Cumberland Region Tomorrow: Facilitate conversations between residents and regional leaders on issues related to growth, development, and quality of life in the region.

• Cumberland River Compact: To support food security through the planting of 72 trees with certified River Friendly Farms and host educational community events.

• Day 7 Inc: To provide affordable self-care and mental health resources (a customized self-care plan) to 20 nonprofit staff for 3-6 months’ time.

• Dismas House of Nashville: Provide Welcome Backpacks and meals for 150 new residents upon arrival, which contain an initial supply of clothing and toiletries.

• Diverse Learners Cooperative: Intensives equip teachers with best practices and a strong professional network in order to better serve their diverse learners.

• East Nashville Hope Exchange, Inc.: To strengthen the literacy of at-risk children in East Nashville and beyond (Davidson County).

• Eating Disorders Coalition of Tennessee (DBA “Renewed”): To continue to provide life-changing programs and support groups for those who are impacted by eating disorders in our community.

• Edgehill Neighborhood Partnership: To provide leadership development and job skills training for 20 adolescent girls in the Edgehill community.

• Education Equal Opportunity Group: Assist 250 at-risk teenagers in breaking the cycle of poverty by exposing them to new career possibilities at local colleges.

• Elmahaba Center: To fund and empower bilingual translators to support our community programming (i.e., livestreams, legal clinics, pop-up clinics) in South Nashville.

• End Slavery Tennessee: To provide holistic, long-term, trauma-informed, comprehensive aftercare to trafficking victims, aiding them in healing and transforming into survivors.

• Faith Family Medical Center: To address health disparities facing low-income people of color, by providing medical and wellness services for 1,300 patients.

• Family & Children’s Service: The Relative Caregiver Program provides support to relatives caring for children of parents unable or unwilling to care for them.

• Family Reconciliation Center, Inc.: Expand awareness of FRC as a resource for visitation to incarcerated prisoners, increase the number and diversity of clients served.

• Fannie Battle Day Home: To provide family empowerment and case management services to 27 low-income families enrolled at Fannie Battle Day Home.

• First Steps: Provide high-quality, professional language interpretation services to 70+ families in the First Steps Community Outreach Program in the 2021-22 year.

• Foundation for Tennessee Chess: To fund the cost for Chess for Children classes at Glencliff Elementary School for two semesters.

• Friends Life Community: Studio Zoom for 30 individuals a subprogram of Advocacy Through the Arts: Empowering individuals with disabilities to tell their story.

• Friends of Metro Dance: To provide a free, accessible movement class for people with Parkinson’s to enhance mobility and strengthen social connections.

• Friends of Shelby Park and Bottoms: To build a volunteer program that improves the park and connects community members with each other and the park.

• Frist Art Museum: Frist Art Museum will offer teen programs to Middle Tennessee youth that nurture creativity, develop leadership skills and promote community.

• From Your Father Inc.: To deliver 100 resource boxes to the doorsteps of fatherless children who are innocent victims of poverty.

• Galaxy Star Drug Awareness/Nashville Peacemakers: To provide trauma release activities and academic technology training for 10 girls & 10 boys in the NPM youth programs.

• Gilda’s Club Middle Tennessee: To provide free mental health support and counseling for those impacted by cancer in Middle Tennessee.

• Girls on the Run Middle TN: Girls on the Run strengthens the social-emotional development of girls while engaging in physical exercise, character and confidence building.

• Girls Write Nashville: Girls Write Nashville Writers Guilds empower teen artists through curriculum-based songwriting, production, mentorship and long-term positive community building.

• Global Education Center: To support educational dance conference exploring the history and aesthetics of Black Dance in America, from Africa to The Americas.

• GOAL Collective: Improve adult education in Davidson County through collective work of 14 agencies, prioritizing learner engagement and internal & external communications.

• Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee, Inc: To provide Goodwill Retail employees vocational assessments, leadership and financial skills training to improve their opportunities for career advancement.

• Guardianship And Trusts: Our program provides court-ordered guardianship services for indigent, abused, neglected and exploited seniors in the Nashville area.

• Habitat for Humanity of Greater Nashville: To build homes and provide homebuyer education and financial counseling to low-income families preparing to buy an interest-free Habitat home.

• Hands On Nashville: Hands On Nashville will train at least 30 disaster response volunteer leaders to assist in engaging service participants after disasters.

• Healing Arts Project Inc - HAPI: To provide free art classes and exhibits to participating artists recovering from a mental illness or substance use disorder.

• HEAR Nashville: To provide hearing aids for 10 low-income adults and seniors in Middle Tennessee.

• Homework Hotline: Funding will provide 790+ free, one-on-one tutoring sessions to students/parents from Middle TN counties supported by Community Foundation.

• Hope Clinic for Women: Provide well-women, STD testing/Pap exams, birth control for 470 low-income, uninsured women who would otherwise not have access to care.

• Hope for Justice: Our specialist investigators work closely with law enforcement to achieve the vision of a Tennessee free from human trafficking.

• HopeKids Middle Tennessee: To provide back-to-school backpacks and supplies for 100 children who are impacted by cancer or other life-threatening medical conditions.

• Horizons at USN: To provide 130 students caught in the achievement gap the tools and support to become successful and confident college-bound students.

• Humanities Tennessee: To provide books, discussion guides, and author appearances with book signing opportunities at Title 1 schools in Middle Tennessee.

• Insight Counseling Centers: To provide seven free mental health webinars for the public on depression, anxiety, grief, addiction, aging issues and adverse childhood experiences.

• Inspiritus, Inc.: To provide access to art therapy that promotes social-emotional learning and healthy coping skills for 150 children in distressed communities.

• International Outreach Ministries, Inc.: To provide food, clothing and educational programs for at-risk Nashvillians and at-risk international partners.

• Intersection: To support the Lullaby Project, pairing 20 new or expecting mothers with professional artists to create their own personal lullabies.

• Jazz Empowers: To support the jazz programs at five underserved schools in Middle Tennessee by bringing in additional teaching artists.

• JDRF Tennessee: To support JDRF’s Bag of Hope Program, which provides resources to children and families newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

• Jewish Family Service of Nashville and Middle TN: Operating support for conducting adoption home studies, assisting with child placement and conducting post-placement supervision visits for the LGBTQ+ community.

• Jordan Thomas Foundation Inc.: Providing support for children living with limb differences including access to prostheses, social/emotional support and mentorship opportunities.

• Junior Achievement of Middle Tennessee: To prepare and inspire1,060 Title I, fifth grade students with the skills and confidence to lead healthy, financial lives.

• Justice Industries: To create a matching savings account incentive program for our employees to build a personal emergency fund.

• Kings Daughters Child Development Center: To cultivate developmentally appropriate skills within 100 children (age two months to five years) of diverse socioeconomic backgrounds.

• Learning Matters, Inc.: To provide 2,600 hours interventional tutoring to under-resourced students with learning disabilities, predominantly Dyslexia.

• Les Dames D’Escoffier Nashville: A series of three educational presentations and dialogues to help increase diversity, inclusion and equity to the Nashville hospitality industry.

• Love Helps, Inc.: To impact 3,000-plus Nashville School children through a school-based program to help establish foundational elements for success--positive character, education, literacy.

• Luke 14:12: To provide 10,500 free, hot, nutritional, dinner-style meals to Nashville’s hungry, homeless and working poor.

• Make Music Nashville: To provide musical activities and education for children and their families in the Nashville area through unique interactive performances.

• MDHA Housing Trust Corporation: To empower 20 entry-level maintenance technicians with a high-demand skilled trade through on-the-job and classroom training for potential advancement.

• Medical Foundation of Nashville: To expand language access through translated materials for charity care patients and direct assistance with prescriptions and medical equipment

• Meharry Medical College: To provide free high-quality medical and dental care to economically disadvantaged individuals and train the next generation of health care providers.

• Mending Hearts, Inc.: Provide individual/group therapy to facilitate relapse management and coping strategies for 200 women in recovery in Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP).

• Mental Health America of the MidSouth: To support expanded staff capacity and case management for vulnerable youth affected by human trafficking in MHA’s Multi-Cultural Outreach Program.

• Metro Nashville Chorus/Sweet Adelines International: Share the joy of four-part a cappella harmony in the barbershop style with young women in Middle Tennessee.

• Mid-Cumberland Human Resource Agency: AniMeals provides pet food to the pets of homebound senior citizens to offset the costs of pet ownership.

• Middle Tennessee Council, Boy Scouts of America: Provide at-risk, inner-city youth with access to life-changing Scouting programs that build self-confidence and leadership skills.

• Middle Tennessee Guitar Alliance: To present four free concerts by world-renowned classical guitarists in 2022.

• Monroe Harding, Inc: To support 12 young adults earning high school diploma or equivalent, or other defined progress in preparation toward job/career plan.

• Mother to Mother: To provide essential health and safety items to low-income babies and children in rural areas of Middle Tennessee.

• Moves & Grooves: To support youth in our programming to build focus, foster character and leadership and gain the confidence.

• Music for Seniors: Deliver 120 on-location live music Outreach programs with senior groups composed primarily of individuals at high risk for social isolation.

• Musicians On Call: To increase the accessibility of live-music programs across eight Middle Tennessee hospitals and deliver positive interpersonal experiences to 7,000 hospitalized individuals.