WHAT WE DO.

At TJC we work to educate Tennesseans about how public programs work, what problems and gaps we see in our health safety net, and how these issues impact everyone in our state. From connecting the dots between health outcomes and childhood hunger, to working hand in hand to pursue a healthier future, we are working for you. We are here to help you cut through red tape barriers that stop too many Tennesseans from getting the assistance they need.

WHAT WE DO.

At TJC we work to educate Tennesseans about how public programs work, what problems and gaps we see in our health safety net, and how these issues impact everyone in our state. From connecting the dots between health outcomes and childhood hunger, to working hand in hand to pursue a healthier future, we are working for you. We are here to help you cut through red tape barriers that stop too many Tennesseans from getting the assistance they need.

HEALTH JUSTICE

TJC works to ensure all Tennesseans have access to affordable healthcare. All of our work is inspired by the courage and generosity of the families and children we are privileged to serve. We pursue that vision by assisting over a thousand individual clients each year, enabling us to identify systemic barriers to care that broadly affect many other families. We advocate — in the courts, before government agencies, in the state legislature, and before Congress — for policy changes to address those barriers and to increase access to and affordability of healthcare in Tennessee.

HEALTH JUSTICE

TJC works to ensure all Tennesseans have access to affordable healthcare. All of our work is inspired by the courage and generosity of the families and children we are privileged to serve. We pursue that vision by assisting over a thousand individual clients each year, enabling us to identify systemic barriers to care that broadly affect many other families. We advocate — in the courts, before government agencies, in the state legislature, and before Congress — for policy changes to address those barriers and to increase access to and affordability of healthcare in Tennessee.

OUR ISSUES

BUILDING OUR FUTURE

27-YEAR SEARCH FOR A HOME

TJC has found a new home, and we need your help to build our future! We recently closed on a property at 155 Lafayette Street, in South Nashville, after many years of moving from place to place. During its 27-year history, TJC has been forced by development or rising rents to repeatedly move its offices around downtown Nashville, including stays in a condemned building and the basement of a parking garage. TJC was dislocated again when Atlanta developers bought their most recent office on Seventh Avenue and started demolition in preparation for the building’s conversion into a luxury boutique hotel. Even a historic pandemic and recession could neither slow the developers’ plans nor dampen Nashville’s raging real estate boom.

With the help of experts, TJC’s Board and management undertook an exhaustive yearlong search for rental space or property available for purchase. They concluded that TJC’s long-term stability would be best served by the purchase of its own building. More careful planning and assessment went into determining the financial feasibility of that option. Meanwhile, TJC staff have recently moved the office to temporary quarters.

WHAT OWNING A BUILDING MEANS FOR TJC

Provides a stable home for TJC, a long-term location with permanency.
Affords TJC insights and inspiration through the “Power of Proximity.”
Creates a visible presence that will promote TJC’s mission to volunteers, donors and the public.
Provides space at a cost of substantially less than the forecast cost for leasing option.
Caps/avoids rental rate increase risk.
Result in significantly more money for direct program delivery.
Provides flexibility for headcount fluctuations (could accommodate growth or sublease more space for income if space needs).
Frees management from the administrative burden of multiple moves and managing changing occupancy costs.
Establishes a location that a) provides more visibility to the community and particularly to clients eligible to be served by the organization; b) is close to downtown and volunteer lawyers/legislature; and c) is close to Vanderbilt, Belmont, Fisk, TSU, Trevecca which are all sources of our intern pool and volunteers.

THANK YOU TO OUR CAPITAL CAMPAIGN DONORS!

$250,000+

The Frist Foundation

Hays Foundation

Frank & Amy Garrison

Bill & Robin King

Ken & Lynn Melkus

Matt Wiltshire & Crissy Wieck

OUR FOREVER HOME

OUR NEW HOME

We are moving to 155 Lafayette Street in South Nashville! The building, site of a long-abandoned liquor store, is located in Nashville’s Cameron-Trimble neighborhood. The neighborhood has a proud 150-year history of struggle for racial and economic justice, but is also burdened by some of the most concentrated poverty in the city. The location will enable TJC to draw on the “power of proximity” to those we serve. As Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, has said, “Proximity is a pathway through which we learn the kind of things we need to know to make healthier communities.” Working in proximity to people and communities at risk “is where we are informed, energized, and feel the empathy that drives us to change the world.”

A New Resource for the Neighborhood

The renovation of the building on Lafayette will enhance TJC’s advocacy while making a positive contribution to the neighborhood. The new building will also create a striking physical landmark that celebrates and promotes justice and signals that TJC will be here for the long haul. That message is important at a time when Tennessee ranks at or near the bottom of numerous measures of social equity and family well-being, and there is so much work to be done. The Pew Trust reports that income inequality is greater in Tennessee than in any other place in America.

The percentage of our young children who are growing up in extreme poverty ranks Tennessee among the worst in the nation. Our new home will be situated in a neighborhood that experienced the highest rate of poverty in the Nashville area in 2016—with families in the 37210 zip code confronting a rate of child poverty more than twice the national average. Millions of Tennesseans, in urban and rural communities alike, are living on the margins and see their children’s opportunities for a better life shrinking. Becoming a permanent member of this community will materially improve TJC’s ability to shape a better future for the people living there, and for our state as a whole.