If there's one thing missing from the old aphorism about the relative value of giving a man a fish instead of showing him how to catch one, it's how long a journey it often is from destitution back to independence. For the homeless, that journey just got shorter, thanks to a new facility downtown that aids in every step toward a more self-sustaining life for its residents.
That facility is Room in the Inn's Campus for Human Development, a massive, new state-of-the-art space on Drexel Avenue where every increment of rehabilitation is addressed daily as part of an overall vision of compassion and mentorship.
Visit the campus situated directly behind Jack White's Third Man Records shop, and the first thing you're likely to notice is how non-institutional the atmosphere feels. It's not the poorer quarters where the ragged people go, as Simon and Garfunkel once sang, but more like an actual campus — and that's by design.
"Turns out, it doesn't cost that much more to include some angles and use different paint," says the campus's executive director Rachel Hester.
That attitude has given the space the open, bustling vibe of a college student union. But there's also a barber's station, a small store and a laundry room. There's a cafe area with a stage. There's even a near-life-size chessboard outside.
"If a homeless person beats you at chess," executive assistant Shannon Wagner says with a grin, "that's going to shatter some stereotypes."
Throughout Room in the Inn's facilities, stereotypes are shattered each time they help a resident on a path toward a new life. To do that, the center has allocated its top three floors for affordable, furnished efficiency apartments. Working their way up, both figuratively and literally, Nashville's homeless can start with the basics on the ground floor, like grabbing a hot meal at a sponsored lunch or getting some first-aid treatment. Then, as they become regular visitors, they can start attending classes on the second floor. Attending classes earns points in the campus's voucher system, which can be exchanged for merchandise at the campus store. Likewise, counseling and skills coaching can help get people back on track to employment, and a steady income can land them in one of the center's upper-floor apartments.
Like most charitable organizations, the campus needs year-round and seasonal donations such as warm winter coats, nonperishable food, bus passes, McDonald's gift cards, travel-size toiletries and the like. But locals can do more than just drop a can of soup in a box. If you can cook, draw, play music, read, have a knack for computers or just want to play chess with pawns the size of fire hydrants, they can use your help. In turn, you can be part of a program so innovative that it's been copied all over the country, and in the process, be a part of changing someone's life just by being yourself.
"Whatever your gift is," Wagner says, "you can help."
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