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Ending homelessness in our community... one family at a time
Our Vision
To eliminate family homelessness in Middle Tennessee.
Our Mission
Lead our community’s efforts to house, support, empower and advocate for families experiencing homelessness.
Safe Haven has over 40 years of experience in the changing field of family homelessness with proactive programs, evidence-based practices and trauma-informed care. We increasingly play a leadership role in education and advocacy to address this community-wide issue.
Safe Haven is the premier shelter-to-housing program in middle Tennessee that accommodates families experiencing homelessness. Our housing first model, coupled with transformative services provides families with the resources and tools to achieve lasting self-sufficiency, stable employment and secured housing.
Need Help?
SHELTER & HOUSING
To ensure that our community matches needs with resources more efficiently, referrals to Safe Haven come through Nashville’s Coordinated Entry (CE) process. CE is a process to identifies, accesses, prioritizes based on need, and then refers to resources as available. To begin the CE process, call 615-862-6444. A CE Specialist with the Office of Homeless Services will help to assess and triage the needs of you and your family and work to best connect you to available resources.
Note: Calling CE does not guarantee a referral to Safe Haven’s Rapid Rehousing program.
If you are fleeing interpersonal violence and are in need of housing, please call this number to reach Coordinated Entry: 615-955-0620.
Other Resources
For additional options and to be connected with food, shelter, etc. Please call the community helpline (2-1-1 from any mobile phone) or click here to visit the 2-1-1 website and/or chat with a representative.
Attend an Event
Lunch and Learn
Join Safe Haven Family Shelter for our monthly Lunch and Learn. The Lunch and Learn includes lunch and details about our programs, volunteer opportunities and others ways to be involved. Sign up and bring a friend!
This is a great opportunity for individuals, families, organizations and companies to learn about ways to be more involved with Safe Haven.
You will learn more about the operations of Safe Haven Family Shelter and ways to get involved.
Get Involved
Help fill ongoing needs at Safe Haven
For 40 years, volunteers have worked side by side with Safe Haven to support our mission and programs. They provide meals for families, collect supplies, assist with the children’s program, help with events, and so much more. Our volunteers are the heart of the journey home for Safe Haven families.
VOLUNTEER: WELCOME HOME
Every week, we ask volunteers to join us in supporting families in their transition into permanent housing by transforming empty apartments into warm and welcoming homes. Help us stage apartments before families move in to create a sense of comfort and belonging.
Other volunteer opportunities include: Events, Inventory, Child Care, Children’s Programs, Groups, Administrative, and General Volunteering
We are proud to have the Excellence in Volunteer Engagement (EVE) certification. Excellence in Volunteer Engagement (EVE), a certification program for Middle Tennessee nonprofits, is the first certification effort of its kind in the nation. EVE recognizes nonprofit organizations that employ high-quality volunteer management practices. The goal of EVE is to increase volunteerism in Davidson County by encouraging all nonprofits to work toward volunteer management programs that offer first-rate volunteer opportunities and experiences.
In Kind Donations
Safe Haven Family Shelter relies on donations of essential household items from our supporters to help make our families feel at home in shelter and as they move into their own housing. There are several ways individuals, groups and companies can help.
NOTE: Safe Haven ONLY accepts items on our current needs list, wish lists or included in our cleaning and welcome home kits. WE DO NOT ACCEPT THE FOLLOWING ITEMS: furniture, clothing, televisions, used mattresses, used bedding, used linens, trial or travel sized items. Questions? Email [email protected].
DONATE NEW ESSENTIAL HOUSEHOLD ITEMS
Purchase and donate new essential household items from our current needs list or visit one of our online wish lists to purchase items to be delivered to Safe Haven. If you would like to help with an item or items on a monthly basis, you can set up a subscription with Amazon to be delivered to Safe Haven each month. The online wish lists below all have similar items. Choose one based on your preference of where you want to shop.
If dropping off items, please email [email protected] to set up a drop off appointment.
HOST A DONATION DRIVE FOR SPECIFIC ITEMS
OR PROVIDE CLEANING AND/OR WELCOME HOME KITS
Each month we feature specific household items needed through donation drives. Sign up to host a donation drive for those items or choose a different item from our needs list.
Also each month, we need 15 cleaning kits (valued at around $75) and 10 welcome home kits (valued at around $400) stocked with the items a family needs to set up their home. Provide these kits as an individual or host a drive for one or multiple kits through an organization, company or group of friends.
View a list of items included in a cleaning kit and welcome home kit
DONATE GIFT CARDS
Donate gift cards to Amazon, Instacart, or Walmart for families to purchase items they need. Gas cards and gift cards to Lyft help families with essential transportation.
DONATE FUNDS ONLINE
Prefer not to shop? Making a one time or monthly donation online is very helpful too. We can order items at the time we need them most!
Click here to donate.
ITEMS WE DO NOT ACCEPT:
Furniture
Clothing
Televisions
Used mattresses
Used bedding or linens
Trial or travel sized items
Safe Haven ONLY accepts items on our current needs list, wish lists or included in our cleaning and welcome home kits.
Email us at [email protected] if you have a question about whether we can take an item.
Our Partnership with Thrift Smart:
If you have items to donate that we cannot accept, please consider donating them to Thrift Smart located at 4890 Nolensville Road. When donating, please say it is in support of Safe Haven Family Shelter. This helps us earn credits that families can use to purchase the items they need.
Need Help?
Safe Haven Family Shelter
1234 3rd Avenue South
Nashville, TN 37210
(615) 256-8195