BRIEF HISTORY
THE NEXT DOOR, INC.
Nashville, Tennessee
The Next Door, Inc. is a non-profit organization dedicated to serving women in crisis, equipping them for lives of wholeness and hope.
In the Spring of 2002, a small group of women interested in the use of a vacant building in downtown Nashville began meeting to discuss and pray about ways to use this building to serve the less fortunate. A community survey of over thirty government and private agencies revealed that one of the largest unmet needs in Middle Tennessee was in the area of transitional housing and services for women ex-offenders.
 Discussions with the landlord of the building led to an agreement to lease the facility to the newly formed agency, which was formally incorporated as the Downtown Ministry Center on March 4, 2003. By November 2003, the agency had received tax-exempt status under section 501c3 of the IRS code.
Founders designed a Residential Transitional Program to address the physical, mental, and spiritual needs of women coming from incarceration. The nonprofit came to be known as “The Next Door” after organizers met with a local warden. He explained that when a woman had paid her dues to society and was ready for release, she would come to “ROLL UP ONE” - a huge, intimidating door that literally rolled open to allow her to walk out to freedom. All too often, the heartbreaking story then followed the same pattern. Too many women went directly back to old neighborhoods, so called “friends”, and addiction, and then returned to incarceration within months, if not weeks. The warden said, “It’s called recidivism.”
The heart of the founders' work came together in that moment. We would pick women up at “Roll Up One” and offer them “The Next Door” to a new home, real friends, and the opportunity to experience a fresh start. "The Next Door" would offer women HOPE!
In November 2006 the legal name of the organization was officially changed to The Next Door, Inc.
At its original downtown Nashville location at 128 Eighth Avenue South, The Next Door provides transitional living and recovery support services to women who are coming out of incarceration, rehabilitation centers, or domestic violence shelters. In recognition of the common need among residents for mental health and addiction counseling, The Next Door provides an integrated model to address the co-occurring disorders. A professional team of counselors, case managers, nurse practitioners, masters level social work interns, mentors, and job coaches complete the staff to provide comprehensive coverage to residents’ needs.
In 2007, The Next Door expanded its services in Nashville to include permanent housing with supportive services for women and their children. The Freedom Recovery Community, a permanent housing apartment complex near downtown Nashville, provides women and their children with safe, affordable housing and supportive services including recovery support, counseling, workforce development for the women and tutoring, mentoring, and drug abuse prevention services for the children.
In February 2010, The Next Door's second Residential Transition Center opened in Knoxville, Tennessee. A third Residential Transition Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee, received its first residents on June 4, 2010.
In the summer of 2010, the Nashville location of The Next Door added treatment services, including an intensive outpatient program, social detoxification, and individualized non-residential outpatient treatment services for uninsured women seeking help to live in recovery from active addiction.
The Next Door also partners with the Tennessee Department of Corrections to provide life skills groups (the Exodus Program) and treatment services for women with co-occurring disorders (the IRIS Program) inside the Tennessee Prison for Women in Nashville.
Updated February 2011
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