Statements
Mission
Our mission is to build access, equity, and inclusion in partnership with the D/deaf, Deaf-Blind, and Hard of Hearing communities through advocacy, education, empowerment, and effective communication
Background
For 95 years, Bridges for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing has been providing programs and services to the Deaf and hard of hearing communities in Nashville and the surrounding area. As a result of the merger with the EAR Foundation in 2008, the League has changed its name to Bridges for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing to better reflect our goal to serve the Deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing communities. BridgesTN is the area's only provider of comprehensive services to Deaf*('D' denotes the cultural and linguistic minority who use American Sign Language), hard of hearing, friends and families. The organization's staff and volunteers work to make sure communication barriers are overcome so children and adults in middle Tennessee and southern Kentucky who are struggling with any level of hearing loss have the same opportunities and experiences as their counterparts in the hearing world. The agency serves not only as a place for social gatherings, but also as a resource for those looking for information and support.Bridges has a long and rich history. It was founded in 1927 by Margaret Lane Washington. Mrs. Washington was a local young mother with progressive hearing loss. Mrs. Washington took lessons herself, then taught Nashville's first "speechreading club" which was the early nucleus of the present-day agency. The first agency moved and changed, but presently resides on Edgehill and continues to serve Deaf and hard of hearing of all ages regardless of the degree of hearing loss. BridgesTN is a comprehensive community service center for people who are Deaf or hard of hearing and their families. Programs and services include outreach and education (sign language classes, outreach efforts, Bridges's new fitness center, wellness programming), youth center (afterschool program, summer camps), interpreter and transcription services, case management, and information & referral services. In September 2008, the League merged with the Ear Foundation, a nationally recognized agency specializing in the unique needs of people with varying degrees of hearing loss. As previously indicated, in November 2009, the agency underwent a rebranding including the name change to Hearing Bridges, now simply known as BridgesTN - when referring to our Middle Tennessee based services, and BridgesDHH when referring to our services in Middle, West and Northeastern Tennessee.
Impact
2022-2023
Adult Education & Outreach Adult Education & Outreach
AEO served 1,802 unduplicated clients. There were 216 students in ASL I, II, and III classes that were onsite, online, or community based. AEO presented 71 virtual and in-person workshops on Deaf culture and ASL in Middle Tennessee businesses, universities, law enforcement, first responders, congregations, and agencies and presented/hosted 14 workshops for the D/deaf and hard of hearing communities. The statewide Driver's Education class had 18 students, and there were 7 GED students with two attaining their GEDs this year. Nine Deaf community members met monthly with the Slovak Association of the Deaf in our cultural exchange partnership. AEO also hosted a number of community-based events and activities in Nashville and in Putnam and Warren Counties.
In 2022-2023, BridgesTN's Advocacy initiative continued to push forward on increased access and quality of care for our communities in mental health, substance abuse, and supported housing services., hosting our first Town Hall on Mental Health in the Deaf Community. This successful training and dialogue to providers and the Community led to training all of Tennessee's state-run mental health hospitals and State funding to support additional training for interpreters. We established open caption movies for summer series hosted by Nashville, Clarksville, Murfreesboro, McMinnville, and Cookeville. We hosted Community Meetings in Nashville, Memphis, Johnson City, and virtually to set our strategic plans. We worked with stakeholders and the State of Tennessee to address emergency preparedness plans and readiness to include our D/deaf, Deaf-Blind, and Hard of Hearing communities. We planned and facilitated panel on Disability in Diversity: Inclusion for the D/deaf, Deaf-Blind, and Hard of Hearing for the Junior League of Nashville and for the Center for Nonprofit Management. We produced a video and news article about making holidays more inclusive for D/deaf and hard of hearing family and friends.
Empowerment is our case management program. Empowerment is our case management program. Empowerment served 245 individual clients, primarily in the areas of jobs, housing, individual access, education, and assisting clients with written English.. Other priorities were food security, training opportunities, educational advocacy, and advocacy for access to health care, mental health care, and other services. Empowerment made over 120 referrals to other agencies, including the Civil Rights Enforcement & Education Center, Disability Rights TN, Vocational Rehabilitation Services, Financial Empowerment Center, attorneys, doctors, churches, and more. Empowerment collaborated with the Financial Empowerment Center to provide bi-weekly financial counseling, providing interpreters and a social worker to work with the counselor. If there were identified barriers to program participation, we were able to provide some direct financial assistance to remove those barriers. Over 90% of clients in the financial program had increased credit scores, paid off debt, or built savings. We partnered with Genoa Healthcare to hold three vaccine and community health clinics. Our Empowerment Manager served on the Mayor's Advisory Committee for People with Disabilities.
Our Youth Education & Service program, Little ACEs, welcomed new Deaf Mentors who meet with families with D/deaf and hard of hearing children ages 0 to 5 each week. Those families also have access to a free, weekly Parent ASL class offered virtually. We matched families in Nashville, Memphis, Paris, and Cookeville, and we continue to grow. Enrollment in Little ACEs tripled in the last year. We transitioned our after-school program in Nashville to school-based mentoring, providing weekly Deaf Mentors for Eakin Elementary and West End Middle. With the leadership of Interpreting Services, we hosted the Deaf Education Institute virtually for Deaf educators and families.
Needs
We have a beautiful and aggressive vision for the next three years. We are building a continuum of services and programs for birth through elder years, and we need your investment and support! 1. Investment: Financial gifts allow us to leverage our relationships to maximize them as we expand our resources and capacity to serve more people in increasingly efficient and effective ways. 2. Volunteers: We depend on volunteers for our front desk, office functions, youth programs, recycling, and grounds maintenance. We utilize volunteers for skill-specific projects such as graphic design, IT, and special events. 3. Mentors: We invite college students and adults to share their experiences in attending vocational schools or college and their careers and hobbies with our students.
CEO Statement
Closing out our 95th year of service and my seventh year with BridgesDHH brought new accomplishments and new opportunities. BridgesWEST, opened in 2019, just six months before the pandemic, grew by leaps and bounds, uniting the vibrant community in southwest Tennessee and doing more and more each day. Then, as we considered options to the east, the strong community in northeast Tennessee approached us to explore options, ultimately inviting us to open BridgesEAST just as our fiscal year drew to a close. The partnership, leadership, and trust of the communities we serve is an extraordinary gift.
In late May, we began a journey to recruit and train 240 educational interpreters across the state. This five-year project will give our D/deaf and hard of hearing students the best possible language models and equal access in classrooms in all 95 counties. This past year also brought big changes and new growth to our youth education programs, expanding into new counties and taking significant steps to our goal of eliminating language deprivation. Camp Rise & Sign was an unbelievable experience. Our Town Hall on Mental Health was successful and transformative for care across the state, and we have new teams trained to do Communication Assessments. I cannot capture here all the work done in partnership with those we serve nor the joy all of it brings.
I call BridgesDHH my happy place. Each and every day, we push ourselves to be more and to do more. You won't find a more strategically, efficiently, or effectively run business, and you won't find one run with more compassion, empathy, ethics, connection, and fun. Here, I have experienced the real power of a proud, welcoming, joyful, encouraging, resilient community.
We continue to define this civil rights work and to seek to engage and empower the community that leads us. From birth through elder years, we identify barriers and needs, removing the former and meeting the latter, and all of it is done on a foundation of excellence, innovation, and love. I am thankful for every minute and for all the extraordinary people who make this work possible. -- Nancy Denning-Martin, President & CEO
Board Chair Statement
As Chair for this dynamic board of directors, I recognize how fortunate Bridges for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing is to have strong, consistent leadership. As we have seen during the pandemic, we are more than prepared to meet the challenges before us. I am excited about our growth this past year and look to this year with great anticipation and energy. Our services will continue to grow and thrive, our reach into rural areas ever expanding, new access created by Access on Demand, new awareness of the necessity of including disability in diversity initiatives.
As a Deaf person, serving as chair is a huge honor. Our talented board brings diverse skills and knowledge, and each director is D/deaf, Deaf-Blind, hard of hearing, a CODA, a parent, or someone with a connection to and a heart for our Community. BridgesDHH continues to provide much-needed support and services across the state, growing from Middle Tennessee to open BridgesWEST and now BridgesEAST and reaching into bordering states.
As someone who uses the programs and services BridgesDHH provides, I know firsthand their quality and the importance of our serving from birth through elder years. BridgesDHH is committed to our mission to build access, equity, and inclusion in partnership with the D/deaf, Deaf-Blind, and Hard of Hearing communities through advocacy, education, empowerment, and effective communication, and from our wonderful board to our incredible staff, led by our amazing CEO, we have the skills and care to do great things. Most importantly, we have the support and leadership of the Community we serve.
Wonderful things are happening and will continue because of your support. "Thank you" cannot begin to express our gratitude and excitement as we move forward into this new fiscal year. -- Mike Knott
Service Categories |
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| Primary Category: | Human Services - Deaf/Hearing Impaired Centers, Services |
| Secondary Category: | Youth Development - Youth Centers and Clubs (includes Boys/Girls Clubs)- Multipurpose |
| Tertiary Category: | Health Care - |
Areas Served
Bridges for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing serves counties in Middle Tennessee as well as some areas of southern Kentucky. BridgesWEST serves Shelby, Tipton, Lauderdale, Haywood, and Fayette counties. BridgesEAST serves northeastern Tennessee and parts of Virginia and North Carolina.
| TN - Cheatham |
| TN - Davidson |
| TN - DeKalb |
| TN - Dickson |
| TN - Hickman |
| TN - Houston |
| TN - Macon |
| TN - Maury |
| TN - Montgomery |
| TN - Robertson |
| TN - Rutherford |
| TN - Stewart |
| TN - Sumner |
| TN - Trousdale |
| TN - Williamson |
| TN - Wilson |
| TN - Clay |
| TN - Hickman |
| TN - Jackson |
| TN - Macon |
| TN - Maury |
| TN - Montgomery |
| TN - Overton |
| TN - Putnam |
| TN - Robertson |
| TN - Rutherford |
| TN - Stewart |
| TN - Sumner |
| TN - Trousdale |
| TN - Warren |
| TN - White |
| TN - Williamson |
| TN - Wilson |
