Nashville Predators Foundation

Featured charities for the 2016-17 season:

Each season the Nashville Predators Foundation spotlights four grant recipients that do tremendous work in the Nashville and Middle Tennessee community. These organizations will receive exclusive opportunities throughout the season including in-arena drives, Predators participation in events, tickets to home games, recognition in team publications as well as other unique opportunities.

Assistance League of Nashville

Website: www.nashville.assistanceleague.org

Preds Drive: Saturday, February 4 - Brand new socks in children's sizes. New socks are one of the items we provide, along with brand new pants, shirts, belts and underwear, to 3,400 metro school children, ages Kindergarten through 4th grade, each school year.

Mission Statement: Assistance League® of Nashville is an all-volunteer organization providing children in need with new school clothing and other necessities to enhance self-esteem and academic success.

Counties/State Served: Children in Metro Nashville Public Schools in Davidson County.

About Assistance League of Nashville: Is an all-volunteer, 501 (c)(3) organization and a district-wide PENCIL Partner with Metro Nashville Public Schools. We were founded in 2005 as the 115th chapter of Assistance League, a national nonprofit organization established in the 1890s. All the funds we raise go directly toward helping children in the Nashville area. Our signature project, Operation School Bell®, provides metro schoolchildren with brand new school clothing. 

Did you Know?

Did you know when children receive new school clothing elementary school principals report:

• Improved student self-esteem and confidence
• Increased school attendance
• Decreased time out of the classroom
• Improved relationships between the school and the parents

How will funds from your drive night be used? The funds will be used to purchase new clothing to distribute to metro Nashville schoolchildren through the Assistance League of Nashville's Operation School Bell.®

Fallen Soldiers March

Website:  www.fallensoldiersmarch.com

Preds Drive (what item):  Saturday, April 1^st - Fly-fishing gear for a charity that takes veterans fly-fishing  

Mission Statement: The Fallen Soldiers March exist to inspire "We the people" to honor our Creator by applying in our lives the biblical principles taught by His Son Jesus in John 15:13, "Greater love has no man than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends" and the divinely inspired providential document of the United States Constitution by inspiring patriotic acts of kindness and conduct to compensate for the historical and current selfishness modeled by many in government leadership by gifting Service Dogs and critical programs fostering healing for United States Military Veterans and their families.

Counties/State Served: State of Tennessee

About Fallen Soldier March: The Fallen Soldiers March is a collaborative labor of love and we have committed to our Veteran Supporters and others that there will be no full-time paid positions unless corporations, privately held businesses, individuals and/or foundations underwrite an operating budget to correct the frustration donors often express about their donations going towards funding the excessive salaries of Executive Administrators. Moreover, we have been successful to date to have everything donated or privately funded, including legal incorporation, trademark and counseling fees, CPA fees, Board Insurance Fees, Website design & Maintenance Fees, etc.

Did you know? June 13-14 of 2015, the Fallen Soldiers March connected the Tennessee squares in Fayetteville, Shelbyville, Murfreesboro and Lebanon after being challenged to hike 78 miles in 24 hours. The Fallen Soldiers March Every Veteran's Day for the past eight years, the Fallen Soldiers March host a 32 Mile Honor March beginning at Legislative Plaza in downtown Nashville straight up highway 70 to the Wilson County War Memorial in Lebanon, Tennessee. For the past five years, the Fallen Soldiers March it's Annual Poker & Bug Run, Bikers ride to five locations and draw a card and also place an fluorescent Avery Office Dot in the center of the motorcycle headlamp. The motorcycles with the best poker hand and the one that collides with a bug closest to the crosshairs in the center of the Avery Office Dot wins. The Fallen Solders March encourages and invites individuals to host events dedicated to raising funds to advance our objectives.

How will funds from your drive night be used? The Fallen Soldiers March seeks assistance to advance our objectives to raise funds to purchase Service Dogs for Veterans and to work towards our long-term vision of constructing a Fallen Soldiers March Ranch that host a state of the art Service Dog Training Center to train Service Dogs for Vets, future Service Dog Trainers needed to impact the demand/supply imbalance and the costs deterring our Veterans from obtaining highly trained Service Dogs. We would like to also offer biblical counseling services and basic medical care to Vets and their family members in the future.

The Journey Home

Website: www.lovegodservepeople.org

Preds Drive: Thursday, January 12 - Toboggan Hats, Gloves and Warm Socks

Mission Statement: The Journey Home is a Christian ministry whose primary focus is to serve the homeless and disadvantaged of Rutherford County - providing them practical resources for body, mind and spirit, and encouragement on their journey to economic stability and reintegration into community life.

Counties/State Served: Rutherford County, TN (primarily) and folks moving to/from adjacent middle Tennessee counties

About The Journey Home: When you're homeless or at-risk and you cannot even meet basic needs, there are NO quick fixes. Problems of daily living are interconnected and impact every aspect of life. REAL SOLUTIONS require a JOURNEY-intentional, planned, motivated, and supported by resources needed to create long-term results.  LASTING CHANGE demands more than a bed and a meal. It requires meeting each person at their point of need and making sure those basic needs are met; re-establishing self-worth and identity, setting goals, addressing health issues, improving education and life skills, and securing jobs and stable housing, to name a few. Above all it requires the hope and strength found in relationship with God and caring folks.

Our philosophy at The Journey Home is to utilize practical day-to-day resources as tools to engage and build relationships with those that are struggling in our community. As those relationships develop, we are then able to empower holistic change with resources that not only make it possible to survive in such a difficult season but encourage our neighbors in need along their path back to wholeness and belonging.

Did you know?

TJH serves about 100 guests each day at our outreach center.

Nightly, over 50 folks have a safe place to call home and needed services through the transitional and supportive housing program.

TJH served over 45,000 meals, provided over 3,000 food boxes, tons of fresh produce, and clothing and hygiene items in the tens of thousands during 2016, along with other services like showers, laundry, computer labs, mail and phone services, and financial assistance for homelessness prevention and re-housing.

Some 1,300 unique volunteers served at TJH in 2015, totaling well over 15,000 volunteer service hours.

There's a place for you!

How will funds from your drive night be used? Financial donations will be used to support the outreach center and housing programs operated by The Journey Home. Through 2015, 93% of donations received by TJH flow directly into services for the needy.

The Refuge Center for Counseling

Website : www.therefugecenter.org

Preds Drive: Saturday, March 4 - Individually wrapped healthy, peanut/nut free snacks, art paint brushes in all sizes, scented and/or washable markers, scrapbook paper/stickers/supplies, and construction paper for our children's Play Therapy programs.

Mission Statement: The Refuge Center's mission is to offer affordable, professional counseling services in order to empower, educate, and support individuals, couples, and families in need.

Counties/State Served: Williamson, Davidson, Maury and surrounding counties in Middle Tennessee.

About Refuge Center for Counseling: The Refuge Center for Counseling opened in December 2005 as the vision of its founders Amy Alexander and Jennifer Gillett. Amy and Jennifer had discovered that there were few opportunities for affordable professional counseling in the area, as many local therapists charge $90 - $150 per session. They wanted to offer therapy to those who could not afford those fees, so they created a sliding-scale fee structure that ranges from $25 - $100 per session and is based on each individual's income level. The name for the center was inspired by a passage in Isaiah which says, "It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and a hiding place from the storm and the rain." (Isaiah 4:6) Beyond being a place to receive affordable and professional counseling services, The Refuge Center has also become a place where people are able to find hope and healing from the storms of their daily lives. The Refuge Center currently has 16 therapists, one Advanced Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner, and multiple Master's and post-Master's level interns on staff. Each counselor has a different area of focus, including domestic and dating violence, adolescent behavioral issues, play therapy, addictions, marital therapy, grief and loss counseling, family counseling, and therapy for parent training and adoption-related issues. To learn more about our services, click here.

Did you know? In Tennessee, those who have been affected by mental illness and trauma are vastly under-served. In 2010, The National Alliance on Mental Illness reported that Tennessee's public mental health system provides services to only 34% of adults with mental illness. It stated, "Public mental health services in Tennessee are inadequate to meet needs." With 22% of our clients falling below the poverty line (according to HHS guidelines), The Refuge Center is standing in the gap to meet these needs in an affordable way. Our sliding fee scale ranges from $25-$100 and 91% of our clients request financial aid. The average fee paid per session is $41, even though it costs our organization $65 per session to provide services.

Individuals impacted by our services are those who have been affected by and/or are displaying symptoms of issues including, but not limited to, anxiety, depression and/or symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress, domestic violence, sexual assault, addiction, natural disasters, accidents, catastrophic illness etc. Refuge offers comprehensive treatment by addressing the related emotions, thoughts, sensations, and behaviors. 

The Refuge Center intends to continue offering all types of therapy services on a sliding-fee scale and we continue to experience a growing number of clients referred to our agency for our high-quality, effective services.

How will funds from you drive night be used? All funds raised will directly offset our session costs, allowing an individual, couple, or family in need to continue receiving professional counseling at a reduced rate. Items collected from the drive will directly benefit our play therapy programs for children.