Having just got off the plane from a trip to Los Angeles for the annual National Alliance to End Family Homelessness Conference, I am filled with key buzzwords of the “new normal” and “best and promising practices”: data, outcomes, prevention, intensive case management and wrap-around services, critical time intervention, trauma-informed care, coordinated entry and rapid [...]
Stem the Tide of Family Homelessness: Lessons from the NAEFH Conference and What We Can Do Locally
February 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Collaboration College 301
February 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Staff of Safe Haven Family Shelter and Nashville OIC will be attending a celebration at Lipscomb University Tuesday (2/7) to honor the achievement of being among only seven capstone projects proposed to “graduate” to Collaboration College 301. Over 150 individuals from 100 different organizations attended a conference last September at Lipscomb University on the importance [...]
‘Hope and Despair’ in the Work to End Family Homelessness
January 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment
I returned from the Institute of Children, Poverty, and Homelessness (ICPH) conference, “Beyond Housing: A National Conversation on Child Homelessness and Poverty,” with feelings of both hope and despair. Despairing of the magnitude of the problem and the difficulty of reaching any consensus around solutions, I was also filled with hope knowing that we can [...]
MLK: “The time has come for us to civilize ourselves by the total, direct and immediate abolition of poverty.”
January 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment
“Now is the time to make an adequate income a reality for all of God’s children, now is the time for city hall to take a position for that which is just and honest.” — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Today our nation and community celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Many of us have the day off to enjoy as a holiday; some of us are using this day as a day of service and volunteerism (“a day on; not a day off”). Most of us remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s contribution to our nation from his “I Have a Dream” speech – one of the most important speeches in American history – a fiery and spiritual appeal to end racism and injustice. However, some of us do not remember that when he was killed, he was supporting a strike of municipal sanitation workers, standing up for the principle that every working American should be able to earn enough to live a decent life.
Giving thanks in 2011 and looking to 2012…
December 31, 2011 By Leave a Comment
As we celebrate the close of 2011 and look toward our work in 2012, we are grateful for your generous contributions and tireless support. We want to say thank you to our thousands of volunteers and hundreds of faith communities that provide services, meals, creativity, love and inspiration; the many corporations, foundations and businesses that [...]
Caring with Compassion
December 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Last September Safe Haven was a finalist for Center for Nonprofit’s 2011 Salute to Excellence Award in the category of Baptist Healing Trust’s Compassionate Care. What an honor! This was also daunting and challenged us to examine our policies practices with our families, our volunteers, our board of directors, but most of all with each [...]
Why our work is important
December 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Recently, 60 Minutes featured a segment on family homelessness, with an emphasis on families becoming homeless for the first time because of economic hardships. Click here to see the piece. Many families are no longer able to afford rent now. They live in cars and struggle to find security and normalcy. They struggle to keep [...]
What does ‘home for the holidays’ mean to you?
November 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Dear Safe Haven Friends, As we enter the holiday season, what does “home” mean to you? For 21 homeless families with children, Safe Haven Family Shelter is their home for the holidays this year. The only shelter-to-housing program in Middle Tennessee that accepts the entire homeless family, Safe Haven provides much [...]
The Unexpected Face of Homelessness
November 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Celebrating our 7th Annual Hike for the Homeless
November 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment
On November 5th, Safe Haven celebrated the 7th Annual Hike for the Homeless. As the fog lifted, we were treated to a beautiful day of hiking, great music, children’s games and more. A record crowd of almost 800 hikers and 100 volunteers joined us at Edwin Warner Park to raise almost $100,000 to support our efforts [...]
