Meet some of our Local Ministry Partners...

PASTORAL COUNSELING CENTERS OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE
Founded in 1985 with a single center located at Vine Street Christian Church, the Pastoral Counseling Centers ofTennessee now has seven locations serving communities throughout Middle Tennessee. This includes one center predominantly serving Nashville’s Hispanic population.  In partnership with local congregations the centers are committed to providing clinical and education services to all in need regardless of their background or ability to pay the regular fees.  Pastoral Counseling is a unique form of counseling which uses spiritual resources as well as psychological understanding for healing and growth. It is provided by Pastoral Counselors who are not only mental health professionals but persons who have in-depth religious and theological training.  Most pastoral counselors are ordained clergy or persons otherwise endorsed by a religious faith group.  Vine Street Christian Church provides facilities for the Vine Street Christian Church location.

ROOM IN THE INN
A program of the Campus for Human Development, Room in the Inn provides food and shelter for up to 225 people each night in over 150 area congregations from November 1st to March 31st.  Vine Street Christian Church hosts guests from Room in the Inn for two weeks of the year and on Christmas Eve.  

Volunteer opportunities include driving the van to pick up our guests in the evening and return them to the Campus in the morning, preparing and serving dinner, hosting the guests during dinner and through the evening hours, spending the night at the church with our guests, providing breakfast and sack lunches, and doing laundry.

BETTER DECISIONS
Better Decisions is an organization that teaches life-planning and decision-making skills to women and girls incarcerated in the Nashville area by means of a structured curriculum delivered by trained volunteers.  Better Decisions has been successfully working inside the Tennessee Prison for Women for over 20 years.

RENEWAL HOUSE
In community with addicted women and their children, Renewal House fosters healing, resiliency and continuing recovery to enhance family health. Renewal House provides Nashville’s first, largest and most comprehensive residential recovery program that makes it possible for homeless substance-addicted women to live with their children while in treatment so that families can heal together. The agency also provides gender-specific intensive outpatient drug and alcohol addiction treatment, licensed by the Tennessee Department of Health, to meet the specialized needs of low-income women, including women in residence and those referred from other shelters and social service agencies.

Goals of the Renewal House residential program are for homeless substance-addicted mothers to: 

  • Remain clean and sober while developing recovery skills and values;
  • Learn parenting skills to maintain or regain full custody of their children;
  • Obtain and maintain employment to become financially self-sufficient; and
  • Establish stable, permanent housing for their families.

To address the multiple physical health, mental health, economic and social barriers that homeless, substance-addicted women and their children face, Renewal House takes a comprehensive approach to recovery. The residential program serves 25 to 35 families per year and incorporates: drug-free supportive housing; transportation services; case management; 12-Step meetings; licensed intensive outpatient treatment for drug and alcohol addiction; parenting, life skills and job readiness training; and employment placement assistance. During six to 15 months, the mothers complete an intensive five-phase program. To graduate, a mother must have maintained employment for 90 days and must have established a stable, permanent home for her family. Follow graduation, a mother receives aftercare case management for at least six months to help ensure that she is continuing in her recovery.

DISCIPLES VILLAGE
Opened in October, 2003, Disciples Housing of Nashville is a 52-unit, low-income housing facility for older adults located in North Nashville. 

The eligibility requirements for occupancy are:

  • Seniors age 62 and older
  • Maximum annual income $21,500 one person, $25,500 two people.

Most of the current residents of Disciples Village fall well below the income eligibility and receive food stamps. Currently 100% of Disciples Village residents are African American.

The goals of the project are: 

  • To provide safe, affordable and permanent housing for low-income seniors.
  • To provide a ministry of hospitality to persons in their senior years.
  • To create a supportive community for persons in their senior years.

Funds from Vine Street have been used for direct resident services including:

  • To provide resident appreciation lunch and other community meals.
  • To provide resident activities including outings, activity night and garden supplies.
  • To purchase supplies for resident activities including games, prizes and snacks.

Disciples Village needs volunteers to: 

  • Host a special seasonal activity for residents (Mother’s Day, Valentines, Christmas, Easter…)
  • Call bingo games
  • Provide game prizes for bingo games
  • Bring youth choir concerts or activities to Disciples Village
  • Host and lead Bible Study, worship and inspirational programming

INTERFAITH DENTAL CLINIC
The Interfaith Dental Clinic is a program founded to bring people of all faiths together in a healing ministry, serving the working poor through quality, comprehensive dental care. Its mission is to restore, protect, and improve the oral health of uninsured low-income, employed persons, their children, and the elderly in the greater Nashville area through access to affordable quality dental care, oral disease prevention services, and oral health education.

Interfaith provides dental care for low-income, working families who do not have dental insurance and low-income seniors.  25-30% of those served come from counties adjacent to Davidson, which have no alternatives to receive care.  The ratio of public health care dentists to working poor is 19,000:1 in Davidson County.  The ratio is far worse in the outlying counties.

THE NEXT DOOR
The Downtown Ministry Center, through its program The Next Door, provides transitional housing and re-entry services for women coming from incarceration.  The program assists residents in addressing mental health and addiction issues; finding and maintaining employment; upgrading job skills; establishing stable financial habits; locating permanent housing; beginning the process of family re-unification; and participating in parenting classes.

The goals of the program include: 1) the residents will remain out of incarceration; 2) the residents will maintain jobs; 3) the residents will establish and maintain permanent housing; 4) family stability for ex-offenders will benefit their future families and the future of their surrounding community because this lowers the incidence of crime, drug abuse, and prostitution. 

GRACE M. EATON CHILD CARE AND PARENT RESOURCE CENTER
The purpose of the Grace Eaton Child Care Center is to provide quality childcare and assistance to inner city children of working families.  The parents are engaged in employment training and/or seeking to lift themselves out of poverty by their achievement of higher education.  The children in the child care center are ages six weeks to five years old primarily residing in the 37203 and 37208 zip codes.

RECONCILIATION MINISTRIES
Reconciliation Ministries recognizes that children and families of incarcerated people are the forgotten victims of crime.  Innocent of any wrong-doing, they are often blamed and ostracized by friends and community.  Through individual and family support, assistance and advocacy, Reconciliation Ministries creates an environment where families can support one another in order to: 1) meet their basic physical, emotional and spiritual needs; 2) strengthen and maintain family bonds throughout the crisis of incarceration; and 3) aid in readjustment upon release of loved ones, thereby reducing repeated incarcerations and making a safer community for everyone.  Reconciliation Ministry seeks to reconcile husband to wife, parent to child, sister to brother, offender to community.

The goals of the project are to continue to serve families of prisoners living in rural areas of Tennessee through newsletters; improve the quality of life for children of prisoners and their families through special programming; and help families maintain family bonds with loved ones in prison by providing free lodging.

At present, over 1,000 newsletters are mailed statewide to families.  Families who cannot afford lodging expenses while traveling a long distance to visit their loved one in prison may stay in the Guest House.  Through weekly group meeting, families have an opportunity to learn about community services and improve skills while the youth are assigned a tutor to assist them with school work.

HOPE CAMP AT BETHANY HILLS
Hope Camp is a program sponsored by Vine Street’s Youth program geared for children from low-income families connected with the Cora Howe Family Resource Center and permits these children to attend a full week of summer camp at Bethany Hills Camp and Conference Center in Kingston Springs, Tennessee.