Nashville Predators Foundation

Drive Date: Thursday, March 21

Website: mycanvasarts.org

Drive Items: Take home art supplies (paint, paint brushes, model magic, 8"x10" canvases, color pencils, markers, artist pads, pipe cleaners, drawstring backpacks)

Mission Statement: The mission of MyCanvas Youth Arts is to offer basic art skills to at-risk youth in efforts to support identity development, encourage healthy coping skills, and build community resiliency through artistic creation and expression. 

Counties Served: Davidson, Rutherford  

About: Art engages creativity, imagination, and self-expression, but it can also be a powerful tool for healing and change. MyCanvas workshops are designed and implemented by art therapists for children and youth in economically challenged communities who often struggle to manage daily stress and frustration. MyCanvas goes a step beyond other art programs to nurture and develop their talents, find their voice, and tell their stories with confidence. Our leaders strive to help our young artists know the importance of their place in their community and in the world.

Did You Know? MyCanvas served 137 at-risk youth in 2017. Served 1085 meals and snacks. Engaged more than 220 volunteers and 605 volunteer hours.

How Will Funds Be Used? Funds from drive night will go to support the cost of workshop supplies, meals, and support staff for the program.

Drive date: Saturday, March 9

Website: urbangreenlab.org

Drive item: Plastic Bags. A trillion plastic shopping bags are used worldwide every year and 100 billion in the United States alone - that's almost one bag per American per day (National Geographic). A plastic bag is used for an average of 12 minutes and it takes 500 years (or more) to degrade in a landfill (Center for Biological Diversity). Here in Nashville, plastic bags cannot be recycled through our curbside recycling, they get caught in the sorter and slow down the recycling process. Instead, recycle plastic bags at your local grocery store or better yet - use reusable bags when shopping!

Mission Statement: Teaching communities to live healthy, sustainable lives.

Counties Served: Davidson County 

About: The rate at which we are using natural resources in urban settings is unsustainable. Urban Green Lab is a nonprofit organization that educates people on how to live sustainably by reducing and preventing waste in their daily lives. By tailoring our message to classrooms, households and workplaces, we can give people practical and fun ideas about how they can protect natural resources. With this knowledge, we are empowering them to be ambassadors for sustainability and an active partner in being part of the solution. 

Did You Know?

• Urban Green Lab works with students, teachers, corporate green teams and other community members to exchange best practices around sustainable living
• Since its beginning in 2009, we'd educated over 10,000 community members about sustainability
• Our Mobile Lab is a state-of-the-art, custom trailer with solar panels, recycled rubber floors, bamboo counter tops, and hands-on activities for visitors
• In the 2017-18 school year, the Mobile Lab visited 30 different schools and educated more than 2,000 students and teachers
• Sustainable Classrooms, Urban Green Lab's teacher training program, launched in July 2018, providing 27 MNPS teachers with sustainability curriculum, including supplies, extensions and home investigations to encourage family conversations about sustainability.
• Our Corporate Roundtable brings together more than 25 corporations, both large and small, year-round to learn, network, foster new skills and policies, inform leadership and exchanges best practices to make sustainable workplaces a priority.  

How Will Funds Be Used? Funds from the drive will go toward our 2020 Campaign, in support of the new Sustainable Classrooms program to train 60 teachers, and empower 10,000 students and their families to live healthy, sustainable lives. 

Drive date: Saturday, January 19

Website: endslaverytn.org

Drive Item: TBD

Mission Statement: To promote healing of human trafficking survivors and strategically confront slavery in our state

Counties Served: All of Middle Tennessee

About: You may think slavery ended after the Civil War. Think again. There are more slaves now than at any time in history. But we can do something about it. Our vision as an organization is to create a slave-free Tennessee. To work toward that vision, we have developed the TAAP model: training, aftercare, advocacy and prevention. We are a part of the Tennessee Anti Slavery Alliance, a collection of four like-minded organizations across the state of Tennessee, to ensure that every victim in every county is identified, rescued and cared for. You can learn more about TASA by clicking here.

Did You Know? 

• In Tennessee, 94-110 minors are trafficked into sex slavery every month. 
• The average age of entry into sex trafficking is just 13 years old
• The life span of a person once trafficked is only seven years. 
• End Slavery Tennessee responded to over 200 referrals in 2017, which is more than one referral every two days. As awareness increases, those numbers continue to rise.
• We partner with many other community organizations to provide comprehensive aftercare for our survivors, from basic needs like food, housing, clothing, and medical care to therapy, job placement, legal services, and more.
• End Slavery Tennessee currently owns one survivor safe house, and it is full.

How Will Funds Be Used? Funds from this drive will be used for our survivor programs and to increase awareness and education of human trafficking in the state of Tennessee.