Office Locations
Bridges's Main Office and the Mary McKinney Youth Center are located in downtown Nashville. A satellite office is located in Murfreesboro.
Nashville
Main Office
415 Fourth Avenue South, Suite A
Nashville, TN 37201
Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Voice/TTY: 615-248-8828
Video Phone (Local): 615-290-5147
Video Phone (Toll-free): 866-385-6524
24-Hour Emergency: 615-244-0979
Fax: 615-248-4797
Murfreesboro
Linebaugh Public Library
2nd Floor Board Room
105 West Vine Street
Murfreesboro, TN 37130
Wednesdays, 3:30 p.m. - 6 p.m.
Voice: 615-887-0446
Clarksville: The Clarksville Satellite Office, formerly located at the United Way of the Greater Clarksville Region, will no longer be offering walk-in services after June 22, 2011. Services are now by appointment only, and residents of Clarksville and its surrounding areas can contact Bridges Main Office to make an appointment.
Directions
The main office of Bridges is located at 415 Fourth Avenue South, Suite A in downtown Nashville. Bridges is a tan brick building on the corner of Fourth Avenue South and Peabody Street.
Park and enter behind the building, through the left door at the top of the stairs. Spaces in front reserved for people who cannot climb stairs.
Coming from the East
Take I-40 Exit 210C 2nd/4th Avenues. Turn right onto 2nd Ave. Turn left at the light onto Peabody. Go through two stop signs (crossing 3rd & 4th Avenues). Bridges is the tan brick building on the corner of 4th Avenue South and Peabody Street.
Coming from the West
Take I-40 Exit 210C 2nd/4th Avenues. Go through the light at the end of the ramp, crossing 4th Ave. Turn left at the next light onto 2nd Ave. Stay in the left lane. Turn left at the second light onto Peabody. Go through two stop signs (crossing 3rd & 4th Avenues). Bridges is the tan brick building on the corner of 4th Avenue South and Peabody Street.
Coming from the South
Take I-65 north. When it merges with I-40, stay in the far right lane which becomes Exit 210C 2nd/4th Avenues. Go through the light at the end of the ramp, crossing 4th Ave. Turn left at the next light onto 2nd Ave. Stay in the left lane. Turn left at the second light onto Peabody. Go through two stop signs (crossing 3rd & 4th Avenues). Bridges is the tan brick building on the corner of 4th Avenue South and Peabody Street.
Coming from the North
Take I-65 south. I-65 merges with I-40 near downtown. Take Exit 209B Broadway/Demonbreun Street. Turn left onto Broadway. Approximately one mile, turn right at light onto 4th Avenue South. Bridges is three blocks up on the right on the corner of 4th Avenue South and Peabody Street.
Contact
Bridges's Main Office and the Mary McKinney Youth Center are located in downtown Nashville. A satellite office is located in Murfreesboro.
Nashville
Main Office
415 Fourth Avenue South, Suite A
Nashville, TN 37201
Monday-Friday: 8:00 a.m. -- 5:00 p.m.
Voice/TTY: 615-248-8828
Video Phone (Local): 615-290-5147
Video Phone (Toll-free): 866-385-6524
24-Hour Emergency: 615-244-0979
Fax: 615-248-4797
Murfreesboro
Linebaugh Public Library
2nd Floor Board Room
105 West Vine
Murfreesboro, TN 37129
Wednesday 3:30 p.m. -- 6:00 p.m.
Voice: 615-887-0446
Clarksville: The Clarksville Satellite Office, formerly located at the United Way of the Greater Clarksville Region, will no longer be offering walk-in services after June 22, 2011. Residents of Clarksville and its surrounding areas can contact Bridges Main Office if they are in need of an interpreter.
Testimonials
Interpreting & Transcribing Program
- Wow, the concert was awesome! Thank you so much for all you did to help me enjoy it! Natalie & Sarah, the interpreters, were absolutely fantastic!!! AWESOME!!! Tell them “THANK YOU, thank you, and thank you!” I will definitely be in touch very soon to request for your services.What can I do to “pay for my appreciation”??? - Valerie Ball
- Eric, Thank you so much for helping me thoroughly enjoy the concert last night. Y'all did an awesome, AWESOME job! Keep up the great work, great attitude (very sunny disposition!) and your business will be successful and secure. Tell the others “Thank you” too. I’ll definitely be in touch!
- Scott was great! Our daughter loved him and they let him go to the OR with her (she insisted that he carry her). We did not realize what a difference an interpreter would make. The pre-op phase went very smoothly and took the pressure off of us to interpret for her. We could focus on talking to the doctors and nurses.
- Wanted to pass this along and tell you that it was a wonderful pleasure to have your staff assist us with our needs! Take care.
- The interpreters were great. They were very respectful and friendly. They were very good. Thank you so much for taking care of all that for my us. I really appreciate it. Thank you!
- Eric - Joseph was simply awesome - and so is Laurie. - I feel so blessed to have been in the room with them. Thanks so much for hooking us up.
- Hi Eric, I just wanted to say thank you for our wonderful learning experience yesterday. As an interpreter, I can appreciate the complexity of your work in an interpreting session. Couldn’t have done it without you! You and Joseph are a great team and we hope that maybe we can do this again sometime in the future. Again, thank you for everything! - Johannie
- We needed a Sign Language Interpreter yesterday for a family member of someone who had expired. Mary called back immediately and arrived here very prompt. She was very kind and made a difficult situation better. The patient's daughter was speech and hearing impaired and she made the statement to Mary that she was the best interpreter she had ever met. Mary was very calm and stayed with the daughter while she visited with her father. Could you please forward this to her agency or give me an address and I will send her a THANK YOU note. Thanks, Liz
- Thank you very much for your help this week! You guys were wonderful about finding us interpreters on such a short notice not one, not two, but three times this week!! It is not often that we have a deaf consumer present in crisis with such acute needs, however when it does happen… we need you and you were there. For that, we are very grateful and appreciative.
- On behalf of the Career Day Planning Committee I would like to thank Bridges and more specifically Laurie and Jon for interpreting for us yesterday. I know that it was a most challenging interpreting assignment – requiring use of ALL of their interpreting capabilities! We greatly appreciate the wonderful job that both of them did! We do not take their skills and dedication to the job for granted!
Click for more information on our Interpreting & Transcribing Program
Living Well Activities
- I want to thank you for the Publix Store tour on Monday. That was so interesting and I enjoyed hearing Reba speak about how to manage your nutrition shopping. Keep up this good work!
- Donice, I want to take this opportunity to thank you so much for your presentation on Nutrition 101. It was so well organized, so informative, and so well laid out from beginning to end. What I especially liked about it is that it encouraged participation from the audience. Even I gained more insight in my nutritional sustainability that I am doing for wellness.
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I met Donice here at the FEMA conference in Baltimore and felt compelled to write and tell you about her amazing accomplishment that I witnessed about an hour ago. The entire conference was being addressed by FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate. He took questions and comments for awhile and Donice was one of the last to get to address him.
She related the terrible experiences she and her clients had after the recent floods in being able to file applications for assistance with FEMA. Administrator Fugate responded that the failure of FEMA’s system to provide access to her clients was unacceptable to him and directed his personal staff to investigate and report back to him ASAP and he would take immediate corrective action.
I have worked in codes and standards development and enforcement at the local, state and national level for almost forty years and have never seen anything accomplished as quickly and efficiently as Donice did. She may not realize it yet, but she single-handedly made the FEMA system more accessible to every hearing impaired person in the country in five minutes. You should be extremely proud of her. She did a brilliant job.
- Question: What new information did you learn in this class/workshop? Answer One: How to quilt properly; use proper tools; work with others; enjoy the fellowship and laughter while working with others. Using our skills to help other people by donating the things we made. Answer Two: At Christmas I learned it is rewarding to give and donate of my time. It is something I want to do to help others in the community.
Click here for more information about Quilting Classes as well as other Living Well programs.
Youth Programs
- I cannot thank you (personally) and Bridges (professionally) enough for the support provided to the MNPS program for the HI!! Without the investment of time, energy, planning, money for gas and salaries, and dedication to the success of the students in MNPS with hearing impairment on their journey to adulthood MNPS would be a lower quality program! Thank you for all you do personally Julie (you bend over backwards to accommodate the Deaf Community!) and to all of Bridges staff/adm. for what they do everyday to underwrite the valuable services provided to the community as a whole!! - Nashville-area teacher
Community Outreach
- Well, Joseph has done it again! He came to our class and inspired us all again, children and adults alike! Joseph was able to make the day fun and educational, by sharing scary stories for Halloween as well as ABC and number stories. He also showed the kids the different modes of communication from ASL to Signed Exact English. The kids enjoyed this activity, and learned a lot, too. After Joseph's visit last month, one of the Deaf kids in our classroom made up his own ABC story. He was so excited to show Joseph his story! When Joseph shared a number story with the class, he taught all the kids how to tell the story, and now they practice all the time! Joseph's visits mean so much to us because the lessons he teaches our kids do not end when he leaves the classroom. The kids continue to learn more about Deaf culture, ASL, and storytelling as a result of Joseph's time in our classroom. Thanks again!
Community Education
- Dear Joseph, I cannot express in words how thankful I am for the personal sharing as well as the presentation regarding the deaf. I have witnessed a marked difference in the staff here at Erma Siegel. We now have a better understanding of how to communicate with our deaf students and a slight understanding of "their" world. The insights you shared with us as well as the open, and honest dialogue was a true gift! May God continue to write a beautiful story through you! Blessing to You! Emily Spencer
- Thank you for coming. That short time has opened my eyes to the deaf culture. Very, very interesting. - Colin, high school student
- You were wonderful. This was an amazing experience. Thank you! - Brooke, high school student
- Thank you so much. You taught me so many things I never knew. - Evan, high school student
- Joseph, As always you left us curious and inspired. Thank you for your time, and for your knowledge and exposure. Please come back anytime! See you next school year. - Kate, teacher
- First, I want to let you know I thoroughly enjoyed the training and guest speaker on last evening. Joseph was AWESOME! Two employees who attended and the two instructors loved it. One took notes so he could share with his family. Thus far I have received nothing but positive feedback from students. They have told me they all learned something – from deaf culture awareness to how to sign. I have seen people signing this morning, telling one another what it meant, and last night I saw students already practicing. I love working with your team and am so glad we can educate my students together. - Judith, ITT Technical Institute
- Thank you so much for spending time in our school on Friday. My students and their hearing friends REALLY enjoyed watching you tell stories! All of the adults had an amazing time watching you as well. I am so glad you were able and willing to come in and spend such a long period of time with us. I think it is so important for the children to be more aware of their culture and meet more Deaf people. It brought tears to my eyes watching you and J.J. just sit and talk. I have never seen him more captivated with a person before, and I told him that you were a great role model for him. Thank you again for your time, it was wonderful for EVERYONE involved. I hope you will be able to visit again! Sincerely, Jill
- I want to express our thanks and appreciation to Joseph for coming to our school last week to tell stories. The only way you could fully understand how much our class appreciated his visit was to see the facial expressions of the kids in our Deaf Ed class. It was amazing to see the "lightbulb" come on in their minds as they understood that Joseph was Deaf, too, just like them. Joseph told a wonderful story that incorporated cute characters, humor, and Deaf culture anecdotes to not just entertain the kids, but to inform them as well. The Deaf kids and the hearing kids in their mainstream classes had an exposure to Deaf culture from the perfect source - a successful Deaf adult. The story also showed examples of hearing kids learning sign language to communicate with a new Deaf friend. This was perfect for our children because the Deaf Ed program has only been at this school a month, so the kids are trying to learn how to communicate with their new friends. We appreciated that Joseph's presentation included Deaf and hearing, and how they can interact with each other. His information was beneficial to the kids, teachers, and administration. Most importantly in my opinion, the Deaf Ed kids had crucial exposure to Deaf culture, passed down from a Deaf adult. When Joseph told an ABC story, I was so pleased to see one of the Deaf kids catch on to the pattern. The little boy started to hold up the upcoming letter of the alphabet, excited to see how Joseph would sign the next part of his story. We would love to have Joseph come again soon. He inspired us all! Thanks, Rebecca
- Joseph, Thank you so much for coming to our agency and sharing your information with us. I have received many e-mails commenting on how nice, entertaining, and informative your presentation was. I hope we can get you to come here and do this again. Thanks again!
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Joseph, I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for your time during the training with our department. Over the days that you were able to teach, we trained a total of 150 firefighters, all of whom are licensed as First Responder, EMT-Basic, EMT-IV, or Paramedic in the State of Tennessee. 144 of these Firefighters are employees of the Franklin Fire Department; the other six who attended were from Spring Hill Fire Department, College Grove Volunteer Fire Department, and Peytonsville Volunteer Fire Department. We were also able to capture a wonderful video that is currently being edited and burned to DVD. This DVD will be used to train addition personnel from Williamson Medical Center EMS, Spring Hill Fire Department, Brentwood Fire Department, and Murfreesboro Fire Department. We will also use the presentation to continue to train our personnel.
The feedback from the class was overwhelmingly positive. This training gave our personnel a taste of the information that is out there regarding special needs that they will encounter and left them desiring to hear more. From personnel who spend a large percentage of their time on training and many times get burned out from hearing the same information over and over again, this is a huge compliment. They truly enjoyed your presentation in particular and you held their attention very well, probably because of your “ADHD”….they appreciate that since most of them are the same! Joking. I will send you a copy of the DVD when it is complete and will continue to update you with information about the number of people who are being trained through the video presentation. Again, we greatly appreciate your time and hope that you feel it was as valuable an experience as we did. If there is anything we can do to help you in any way…providing fire safety education to your clients or anything else you can think of, please do not hesitate to contact us. We will be happy to return the favor if possible.
Please forward this to Eric as well, I did not have his e-mail address, but want to ensure that he understands we are very appreciative of his participation as well. Without him, this would not have been possible. The interaction between the two of you is wonderful and it was a great joy to have him here as your voice. With much gratitude, Sarah B. Glenn, BA, EMT-P, I/C, EMS Officer, Franklin Fire Dept.
- Joseph, You were a huge inspiration and we really enjoyed your visit. We had such a good time and we learned a lot! Come back soon! Thank you so much! You're awesome! I learned so much about the language and I am planning on taking classes. A million thanks to you. We all learned so much and lots of my kids are interested in taking your class. Hope to see you again soon – all the best. Many thanks again. - Foreign Language Teachers and Students
Click here to find out more about Outreach and Awareness Services or here to learn about our Community Classes.
History
In the 1920s, a young Middle Tennessee mother named Margaret Lane Washington learned that she was losing her hearing. At that time, Middle Tennessee offered no help for persons who were Deaf or Hard of Hearing. So Mrs. Washington moved to Washington, D.C., where she studied lip reading and became a certified lip reading teacher.
Three years later, in 1927, she returned to her hometown of Murfreesboro and taught her first speech reading class at the Watkins Institute in downtown Nashville. Mrs. Washington's first class of 13 students became the nucleus of today's Hearing Bridges.
From one young woman's determination to help herself grew an organization that has helped thousands of Deaf and Hard of Hearing people in Middle Tennessee and parts of Southern Kentucky. Mrs. Washington remained a guiding light at the League until her death in 1991.
Much has changed during the eight decades of our history. Our name changes, one in 2000, from the League for the Hearing Impaired to the League for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and in 2009 to Hearing Bridges is one example. Other changes include things such as technological advances including digital hearing aids, medical breakthroughs like Cochlear implants, improved diagnostic techniques, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and an increasing number of people needing help for hearing loss.
Today, due to the ADA, we are a not-for-profit, service-based organization serving the Middle Tennessee area and parts of Kentucky rather than limiting our services to members. We provide services to the unserved/underserved populations.
We carry on the dream and legacy of Mrs. Washington, helping thousands of people of all ages each year. They represent all social and economic backgrounds. What unites them is the common desire to live their lives to the fullest as active and contributing participants in our community.
The late Helen Keller once said that if given the choice between having her sight or her hearing, she would choose hearing. The reason, she explained, is that the loss of sight cuts you off from things. The loss of hearing, however, cuts you off from people.
We work hard to see that no barriers stand in the way of Deaf or Hard of Hearing people reaching their goals. That's been our commitment for more than 80 years. We are as dedicated to this purpose today as we were in 1927.
Board of Directors
Officers
Pictured below, Board Chair & Vice Chair Jon Giese and Greg Pease.
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Members
Director Operations & Finance, Department of Otolaryngology
Bill Wilkerson Center
Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce
About Us
Mission
To unite the Deaf, the hard of hearing and the hearing communities through education, services and support, empowering individuals to achieve their full potential.
Vision
There are no barriers for Deaf and hard of hearing people to reach their goals.
Funding
Bridges is fortunate to provide programs and services because of generous donations from local individuals, corporate sponsors, and foundations. Activities are funded in part by the United Way of Metropolitan Nashville, United Way of Clarksville and Montgomery County, The Memorial Foundation, Baptist Healing Trust Foundation, The Frist Foundation, Sertoma Club, the Tennessee Department of Human Services, Metropolitan Nashville Government, and many others. For information on the agency and other funders, please access Bridges on GivingMatters.com.