Preventing and Ending Family Homelessness

Every family deserves a place to call home. But the reality is: In a thriving city like Nashville, more than 3,000 students have no place to call home—they live in cars, motels, shelters and on friend’s couches.

Kids who experience homelessness face many obstacles to reaching their potential like lack of resources, frequent school changes, loss of school records and emotional stress. That’s why The Family Collective is hard at work to prevent and end family homelessness in our city.

In 2014, with seed funding from the Siemer Institute, United Way of Greater Nashville launched The Family Collective—originally the Family Empowerment Program—to address homelessness, connect families to sustainable opportunities and disrupt cycles of poverty. As of October 1, the cohort has grown to include more than 25 partner organizations.

Families enter one of the programs within The Family Collective while experiencing a housing crisis or while receiving services at one of our hubs, community centers or schools, where they receive at least one core wrap-around service and select the service mix that best meets their needs. We seek to ensure that when a family becomes homeless, their experience is rare and brief—no longer than 30 days—and the negative effects are limited.

The Family Collective gives power back to families by providing space for families to get the help they need while providers work alongside each other to build trust, infrastructure (ex. coordinated entry systems, landlord networks, etc.) and have courageous conversations with all stakeholders in each community.

This work is changing lives.

Partner Organizations

• 15th Ave. N. Learning Academy
• Bethlehem Centers of Nashville
• Burnett Group
• Catholic Charities, Diocese of Nashville
• Cheatham County Ministerial Alliance at Bethesda Center
• Cheatham County Public Schools
• Community Helpers
• Community Housing Partnership
• Conexión Américas
• COPE
• Elevate Consulting
• Fannie Battle Day Home for Children
• GraceWorks Ministries
• Martha O’Bryan Center
• McNeilly Center for Children
• Metropolitan Nashville Development Agency at “Envision Napier”
• Mid-Cumberland Human Resource Agency
• Organized Neighbors of Edgehill
• Preston Taylor Ministries
• Robertson County Family Resource Center
• Safe Haven Family Shelter
• St. Luke’s Community House
• Saint Mary Villa Child Development Center
• TechBridge
• The Salvation Army
• United Way of Rutherford and Cannon Counties