Mending Hearts was founded in early spring 2004 by our current
Executive Director (Trina Frierson) and Deputy Director (Charlotte
Grant) who are themselves in active recovery. Responding to
the obvious need for supportive, sustainable recovery services
for homeless women and ex-offenders, Trina and Charlotte started
a cleaning business together and used the proceeds to support
other women who wanted to overcome the cycle of addiction and
homelessness and return to society as contributing members by
founding and funding Mending Hearts.
Mending Hearts opened its doors to 7 women and reached full
capacity on April 24, 2004 in a small house located on Phillips
Street in North Nashville. This Phillips Street property remained
at full capacity until it’s closure in February 2007 when
all of the women were transferred to a consolidated apartment
community on Albion Street.
Recognizing that serving a maximum of 7 women at a time was
only making a small difference in the overall community need
for recovery services, the Board of Directors and Staff of
Mending Hearts stepped out on faith and negotiated a lease
for six apartment units at 4305 Albion Street in the summer
of 2005. Shortly after this new property serving an additional
18 women reached and remained at capacity, the Board moved
forward with leasing two more units at 4302 Albion Street – located directly across the street and housing the administrative
offices.
Recently, in February 2007, Mending Hearts negotiated a lease
on four additional apartment units at 1000 43rd Avenue at
the Albion Street intersection in West Nashville enabling
the organization to serve 15 additional women in recovery
and launch the Intensive Early Stage Recovery (IESR) program
and bring the total number of residents to 37 women spread
throughout three adjoining apartment complexes creating a
campus of recovery.
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