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Student Organizations, Leadership, and Service

Community Partners

Below is a dropdown list categorizing our community partners and their various service opportunities. If you are interested in getting involved in any of the service projects or internships or have any questions, please reach out to Madison Woods (madison.woods@vanderbilt.edu) to connect. This list will be continuously updated as we add more community partners!

  • Pawster Nashville
    • Mission: Pawster provides Crisis Foster Care for dogs and cats when their owners are temporarily unable to care for them.
    • Opportunities: Transporting pets, fostering pets, help with social media, and grant writing
  • Say It Once Rescue League 
    • Mission: Their mission is to save the lives of rescue dogs by providing free behavior modification training and preventative wellness programs.
    • Opportunities: Taking a rescue pup to events, Training, Special events, marketing and social content, hosting a fundraiser
  • Centennial Park Conservancy
    • Mission: The Centennial Park Conservancy is a 501(c)(3) organization that has been working in Consort with Metro Park to support Centennial Park and the Parthenon. They underwrite and present free programs in the park like Musicians Corner and Kidsville, and raise funds for park revitalization and protection.
  • Cheekwood Gardens and Estate
    • Mission: Cheekwood's mission is to celebrate and preserve Cheekwood as a historical landmark where beauty and excellence in art and horticulture nurture the spirit and serve as inspiration for a diverse and broad audience. 
  • Friends of Shelby Park and Bottoms
    • Mission: Friends of Shelby Park and Bottoms work to preserve, enhance, and promote Shelby Park and Bottoms for everyone to appreciate and protect. Friends of Shelby Park and Bottoms is working to create a world-class park, by restoring and preserving its historic importance, protecting its environmental resources and providing amenities for active and passive recreation for all the people who use the park.
  • The Land Trust for Tennessee
    • Mission: The Land Trust for Tennessee is a statewide, accredited non-profit land conservation organization. Their mission is "To preserve the unique character of Tennessee's national and historic landscapes and sites for future generations." Currently in their 24th year, they have protected nearly 135,000 acres through over 435 conservation projects across Tennessee. Just 5 miles south of downtown Nashville, Glen Leven Farm is the 64-acre home office of The Land Trust for Tennessee, where their conservation vision comes to life!
    • Opportunity: Invasive plant removal, trail maintenance, and gardening
  • The Nashville Tree Foundation
    • Mission: The Nashville Tree Foundation works to preserve and enhance Nashville’s urban forests by planting trees in urban areas, identifying the oldest and largest trees in Davidson County, and educating the public about the value of trees.
    • Opportunities: Planting Events, Tree Care Events, and Tree Adoptions
  • Pet Community Center
    • Mission: Pet Community Center is dedicated to strengthening the human-animal bond through accessible veterinary care and support services.
    • Opportunities: Clinic volunteer, community outreach and programs support, food bank assistance, marketing and fundraising
  • National Museum of African American Music
    • Mission: The National Museum of African American Music is the premier global destination for music lovers of all generations and inspires, educates, and transforms your appreciation of American music. NMAAM was born out of a proposal from the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce in 2002, as a way to celebrate and preserve African Americans' influence on music and provide residents and visitors with diverse cultural offerings. The National Museum of African American Music broke ground in early 2017 and officially opened in 2021. Since its opening, NMAAM has welcomed guests from across the U.S. and is one of Music City's top, must-see tourist destinations.
  • Tennessee Craft
    • Mission: Tennessee Craft is a non-profit 501 (c) 3 Organization where we work to continue and create Tennessee's Fine Craft Tradition by connecting emerging and experienced Makers and the public with resources and opportunities to make their mark on our state's handmade legacy.
  • Empowering Neighborhood Partnerships
    • Mission: Empowering Neighborhood Partnerships' mission is to work for justice and equity with their neighbors through building relationships, community action, service, and empowerment.
  • Hands on Nashville
    • Mission: Hands On Nashville's mission is to meet community needs through volunteerism. Their programs connect volunteers to opportunities supporting 200-plus nonprofits, schools, and other civic organizations; help these partners reimagine volunteer potential; and bring awareness to the challenges facing the people and places in our community.
  • Greater Nashville Regional Council
    • Mission: The mission of the Greater Nashville Regional Council is to assist local communities and state agencies in the development of plans and programs that guide growth and development in the most desirable, efficient, and cost-effective manner, while ensuring the continued long-term livability of the region. In carrying out this mission, GNRC convenes elected leadership and local practitioners to brainstorm strategies for improving quality of life; facilitates cooperative policymaking in order to prioritize state and federal investments into area social services and public infrastructure, and provides a public forum for Middle Tennesseans to shape regional decisions.
  • ThriftSmart
    • Mission: Thriftsmart exists to provide value to customers, opportunities for employees, and benefits to charities by operating the best thrift store in the world and promoting thrifty living.
  • YWCA Nashville & Middle Tennessee
    • Mission: YWCA Nashville & Middle Tennessee is dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women, and promoting peace, justice, freedom, and dignity for all.
    • Opportunities: Storage organization, envelope stuffing, event preparation, youth camp assistance
  • Senior Ride Nashville
    • Mission: They enrich the lives of older adults and engage them in the community by providing affordable and assisted transportation.
  • Black Voters Matter
    • Mission: Black Voters Matter Fund is dedicated to expanding Black voter engagement and increasing progressive power through movement-building and engagement.  Working with grassroots organizations, specifically in key states in the South, BVMF seeks to increase voter registration and turnout, advocate for policies to expand voting rights/access, and help develop infrastructure where little or none exists to support a power-building movement that keeps Black voters and their issues at the forefront of our election process.
  • Book'em
    • Mission: Book'em's mission is to create a more literate Nashville and ignite children's passion for reading through book ownership and enthusiatic volunteers.
    • Opportunities: Translating documents (priority: Nepali and Burmese), conduct book drives, transport books, staff special events, and process books
  • PENCIL
    • Mission: PENCIL is a non-profit organization that builds strategic partnerships between community groups and the needs of Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS). PENCIL and their partners are committed to meeting the needs of MNPS to ensure equitable access to education for all students.
  • Persist Nashville
    • Mission: Their vision is to UNIFY the community to DOUBLE the rate of college graduates in Nashville. Coaching: Using text-based coaching, we send reminders and coach students via text to ensure enrollment. Scholars get weekly texts and have access to 1:1 coaching supporting on campus during the year. Community: 11 Persist Campus Leads support their peers through weekly gatherings, monthly community events, and bi-weekly check-ins. Care: All students have access to an emergency fund of $200 to help them financially weather a persistence barrier. They also have the opportunity to sign up for job conversations, shadowing, and mentoring from the Nashville business community.
  • Preston Taylor Ministries
    • Mission: Preston Taylor Ministries is a Christian based afterschool program. Children rotate in small groups between enrichment, reading, and homework.
    • Opportunities: Facilitating rotation, help with homework, and provide instruction
  • Robert Churchwell Museum Magnet Elementary
    • Mission: Robert Churchwell Museum Magnet Elementary is a local elementary school that serves Prek-5th grade students located in the North Nashville community.
  • The Afterschool Program
    • Mission: The Afterschool Program, or TAP, pairs Vanderbilt students with students at elementary, middle, and high schools in North Nashville for tutoring and mentorship once a week.
  • CovEducation
    • Mission: CovEducation (or “CovEd”) is a community of undergraduates, postgraduates, students and educators from colleges and universities across the U.S. who are interested in supporting K-12 students in light of the pandemic. We created a free virtual platform for pairing mentors from higher education institutions with K-12 students affected by school closures. We are also working to compile free, web-based educational resources for students, families, and educators, as well as partner with schools and other non-profits to improve the learning experience of K-12 students.
    • Opportunities: Virtual mentorship for K-12 students
  • BELL Garden
    • Mission: Founded in 2012, BELL Garden is a hybrid school and community garden located on the Bellevue Middle School Campus in Nashville, TN. As a 501(c)3 nonprofit, BELL Garden is focused on building healthier and deeper connected communities through garden based service, education, volunteerism, and food distribution to those in need.
    • Opportunity: Harvesting vegetables for the food bank and farm stand, weeding beds and paths, and assisting with assorted garden projects
  • Nueva Vida Food Project
    • Mission: Nueva Vida has 2 food serves per week where they distribute groceries to their neighbors in need. They also provide some basic essentials, resource information and offer free English classes. The majority of their clients are from Nashville's immigrant and refugee community.
    • Opportunity: Spanish-Speaking Greeters, loading food carts, stocking food bank shelves
  • Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee
    • Mission: They Provide Food to People Facing Hunger and Work to Advance Hunger Solutions.
  • The Branch of Nashville
    • Mission: They serve their community by providing emergency food services, English classes, older adult grocery delivery services, partner and participant- their newest one-on-one service to their community- Fresh Solutions initiative.
  • The Nashville Food Project
    • Mission: The Nashville Food Project is a community food project that brings people together to grow, cook and share nourishing food. Their work connects people to nutritious food and to each other through vibrant urban agriculture projects, made-from-scratch meals cooked in their kitchens, and food shared with local poverty-disrupting partners.
  • American Cancer Society
    • Mission: The American Cancer Society's mission is to improve the lives of people with cancer and their families through advocacy, research, and patient support, to ensure everyone has an opportunity to prevent, detect, treat, and survive cancer.
  • OurCEL Solutions/Blood Assurance
    • Mission: Their mission is to provide a safe and adequate supply of blood and blood components, in a cost effective manner, to every area patient in need. All blood and blood components collected stay local and are used by area hospitals. They are also involved in multiple cellular therapy research projects, aimed at finding cures for cancer and autoimmune diseases.
  • There With Care
    • Mission: They bring community and care to families with children facing a medical crisis. Their organization delivers fundamental care bags to families at Vanderbilt and Tristar Children's hospitals.
  • VA Tennessee Valley Healthcare System
    • Mission: They are a federal agency that provides healthcare to Veterans.
  • Hope Clinic for Women
    • Mission: Established in 1983, Hope Clinic for Women is a faith-based safe and confidential place equipping women, men and families dealing with: unplanned pregnancies, access to women’s healthcare, prevention education, pregnancy loss (miscarriage, stillbirth, infant death, failed IVF/Adoption and abortion) and postpartum depression. We provide medical care, professional counseling, education classes, case management, mentor-ship and practical support regardless of age, race, religion or ability to pay.
  • Cleaning Hands For You
    • Mission: Cleaning Hands For You's mission is to provide cleaning for those with cancer to thrive in a fresh, healthy, non-toxic environment. Their vision is to help as many cancer patients as possible in their time of sickness by providing two free home general cleanings.
    • Opportunities: Assist in answering donor relations such as answering questions and writing guidelines
  • Amedisys Hospice
    • Mission: We honor those we serve with compassionate home health, hospice, palliative and high-acuity care services that apply the highest quality clinical practices toward allowing our patients to maintain a sense of independence, quality of life and dignity. Amedisys Hospice gives patients who are facing a life-limiting illness the freedom to live ALL the days of their lives to the fullest, by offering comfort, dignity, and quality of life.  
  • Gift of Life
    • Mission: Gift of Life’s mission is to cure blood cancer through cellular therapy. At Gift of Life, we believe every person battling blood cancer deserves a second chance at life — and we are determined to make it happen. We are singularly passionate about engaging the public to help us get everyone involved in curing blood cancer, whether as a donor, a volunteer or a financial supporter. It all begins with one remarkable person, one life-changing swab and one huge win — finding a match and a cure.
    • Opportunities: Presentations and swabbing tabling events
  • Catholic Charities Diocese of Nashville
    • Mission: Catholic Charities Diocese of Nashville has multiple programs, from Hunger Relief to Refugee Resettlement, and have many opportunities for people to get involved and help with charitable work. 
  • The Contributor
    • Mission: The Contributor is a nonprofit, social enterprise in Nashville, Tennessee that creates economic opportunity with dignity by investing in the lives of people experiencing homelessness and poverty. They print a weekly street newspaper that provides over 300 individuals experiencing homelessness and poverty with a pathway to earn income through the sale of The Contributor. Vendors purchase each paper sold for $0.75 and sell it to their customers on the streets for $2.00.
  • Urban Housing Solutions
    • Mission: Urban Housing Solutions (UHS) is a non-profit organization that has been creating affordable homes in supportive communities around Nashville since 1991.
  • Belmont Church
    • Mission: Belmont Church's community efforts focus on reaching out to Nashville's community experiencing homelessness. 
  • Room In The Inn
    • Mission: Their mission is to provide programs that emphasize human development and recovery through education, self-help and work, centered in community and long term support for those who call the streets of Nashville home.
  • Martha O'Bryan Center
    • Mission: Martha O’Bryan Center is an anti-poverty non-profit organization with longstanding history and deep community roots, founded in 1894. Their headquarter campus sits in the East Nashville public housing campus of Cayce Place, currently transforming into the mixed-income neighborhood Boscobel Heights.  This is where they operate most of their programs, supporting education goals for learners of all ages, empowering youth and adults in their careers, and providing stability and support services for individuals and families. Martha O’Bryan Center also operates two public, K-8 charter schools in East Nashville, and is co-located with partner agencies in several other centers and public schools as well. These are the places in Nashville where they continue in service, partnering with families to open doors of hope and possibility, create a culture of attainment, and positively shape future generations.
    • Opportunities: Creating greeting cards, donation drives, food bank, adult education aides, special events, tutoring
  • Dismas House
    • Mission: Dismas House is an approved Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) residential reentry program in Nashville that accepts applications from men returning to the community directly from all state prisons and county jails throughout Tennessee. To successfully complete our program, residents must stay a minimum of 90 days. Dismas House provides our residents with a uniquely warm and family-like atmosphere, in addition to a comprehensive selection of services we cluster under the umbrella of our “Four Pillars,” which are 1) basic needs, 2) health and well-being, 3) life skills, and 4) legal support. Our goal is to support these men as they navigate the challenging transition from prison back into the community and help them overcome the many barriers to successful reentry.
  • Ella's House
    • Mission: Ella's House exists to empower pregnant and parenting collegiate students journeying paths of higher education through housing, community, and mental health and wellness initiatives. In other words, holistic help to balance education and family through semesters and trimesters. 
    • Opportunities: Campus Ambassador Position Available, Special Events Assistance, Community Awareness and Organizational Promotion, Research for Student Resources
  • Nashville Launch Pad
    • Mission: Nashville Launch Pad's mission is to create a network of temporary, safer, street-free sleeping shelters for unhoused young adults which are open and affirming to LGB TQ+ individuals and their allies. Their vision is to ensure all unhoused and displaced young adults in Middle TN have safer and more secure sleeping shelters throughout the year.
    • Opportunities: Meal donations, storage organization, painting, hosting supply drives
  • Refugee Youth Mentor Program
    • Mission: Our program connects recently-resettled refugees ages 15-24 to mentors in the community who can help them reach career, educational, and/or language development goals. Mentors meet with their mentees at least once a week for six months and will receive training in mentoring best practices and cultural competency.
  • Tennessee Immigrants and Refugee Rights Coalition
    • Mission: The Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) is a statewide, immigrant and refugee-led collaboration. Their mission is to build power, amplify their voices, and organize communities to advocate for their rights. Their vision is a stronger, more inclusive Tennessee where people of all nationalities, immigration statuses, and racial identities can belong and thrive.
  • AbleVoices
    • Mission: AbleVoices is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that provides photography programs for youth and adults with disabilities as a means for self-expression, empowerment, and advocacy. The ultimate goal of an AbleVoices project is to provide the tools and training for individuals to create pictures that communicate their interests, strengths, and goals for the future as well as foster the inclusion of individuals with disabilities in their communities. The culminating experience of an AbleVoices project is to display participant photographs with captions in a gallery so family, friends, and the general public can learn about and celebrate the photographers.
  • Jill's House
    • Mission: Jill's House provides rest to families with children (ages 6-17) with an intellectual disability. While families have the opportunity to rest, their child gets a unique camp experience where they get to do archery, ziplining, and make lasting memories. 
    • Opportunities: Camp Leaders
  • Saddle Up! 
    • Mission: Saddle Up’s mission is to impact the lives of children and young adults with disabilities by providing opportunities to grow and develop through therapeutic, educational, and recreational experiences with horses. We bring that mission to life by providing a year-round program on our 34-acre farm near Franklin, TN. Our programs include Adaptive Riding, Therapy Services, Interactive Vaulting, Equine Assisted Learning, and more.
    • Opportunities: Painting fences, cleaning equipment, clearing trails, being a leader or sidewalker, a feeder or stable hand, or a farm hand
  • Creative Girls Rock ®️
    • Mission: Creative Girls Rock® founded October 17, 2017, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that was birthed from a passion for creative arts, youth development, community engagement; and, a therapeutic method for anxiety. Their mission is to educate and empower young girls and women to utilize their creative talents to enhance their lives and the world around them. They serve low-to-moderate income families both locally and globally.
  • Girl Scouts of Middle Tennessee
    • Mission: Girl Scouts of Middle Tennessee is the premier leadership organization for all girls to have the opportunity to pursue greatness, create sustainable change in their communities, and actively transform the world around them now and for future generations. We prepare girls for their future by educating them in the areas of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics), Outdoor Adventures, Life Skills, and Entrepreneurship. Together we are empowering girls and changing the world.
    • Opportunities: Translating documents, special events, leading workshops, mentorship program 
  • Nashville Diaper Connection
    • Mission: Nashville Diaper Connection, founded in 2013, is Middle Tennessee’s only diaper bank.  The diaper bank provides free emergency and supplemental supplies of infant/toddler diapers for our most vulnerable neighbors. Their mission is to ensure that every baby in Middle TN has enough diapers to remain clean, dry, and healthy.
  • Nashville Dolphins
    • Mission: It is the Nashville Dolphins' mission to improve the health and quality of life for children and adults with special needs and combat the alarmingly high statistic of drowning deaths. The Nashville Dolphins provide adaptive aquatic lessons ranging from water safety and survival through competitive swim team programming for participants at no cost.
  • Nurture the Next
    • Mission: Nurture the Next helps Tennessee families build the skills and confidence to create a caring environment needed for the healthy development of their young children. They do this through in-home services, parent mentorship, educational classes and crisis support. Their services are free to families and confidential.
  • Operation Christmas Card
    • Mission: The mission of Operation Christmas Child is to provide children in need around the world with a child shoebox filled with toys, school supplies, and hygiene items. 
    • Opportunities: Prepare shoebox gifts to be sent to children around the world
  • Ronald McDonald House Charities
    • Mission: The mission of Ronald McDonald House Charities of Nashville is to keep families close by providing essential resources and a “home-away-from-home” for families of critically ill children receiving inpatient or outpatient medical care at Nashville area hospitals.
  • Water Walkers
    • Mission: Water Walkers uses watersports, educational enrichment, and mentoring to help underserved youth in Nashville, TN. Water Walkers builds its programming on five interconnected pillars: basic needs, wellness, education, outdoor adventure, and leadership.
    • Opportunities: Paid internship opportunities available related to grant writing, photography & videography, program assistance, or counseling; General volunteer support for their afterschool program is also needed.
  • HopeKids
    • Mission: HopeKids provides ongoing events, activities and a powerful, unique support community for families who have a child with cancer or some other life-­threatening medical condition. We surround these remarkable children and their families with the message that hope is a powerful medicine.