Thursday, September 24, 2026 | 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM
Proclamation Church | 308 E. Thompson Lane, Nashville, TN 37211
There are plenty of ways to talk about a city’s health. We can count gyms, greenways, races, and wellness studios. But the truest measure may be much simpler: how well do we care for the people who need their community most?
On Thursday, September 24, Rise Up Nashville returns to Proclamation Church for an afternoon built around that kind of care.
From noon to 3:00 PM, local nonprofits, businesses, healthcare partners, public agencies, volunteers and neighbors will come together to serve members of Nashville’s unhoused community with meals, showers, laundry services, clothing, wellness care, hygiene supplies, transportation resources and meaningful community support.
It is help without hoops. Connection without judgment. And a reminder that dignity should never depend on someone’s address.
Rise Up Nashville began with a simple but powerful goal: bring the people who need support and the organizations ready to provide it into the same welcoming space.
The first major Rise Up gathering took place at Proclamation Church in November 2025. Nashville Fit, Wellpoint, Metro Nashville, Proclamation Church, and local outreach partners worked together to offer food, warm clothing, hygiene items, and direct access to organizations supporting housing, recovery, mental health, employment, and other essential needs.
The initiative continued growing in 2026 with additional resource fairs at Proclamation Church and Coleman Park Community Center. Each event has helped guests access several services in one place instead of navigating multiple locations, complicated systems, and long lists of phone numbers alone.
What began as a single day of outreach has become a recurring community effort, with a larger vision of creating reliable, ongoing support for Nashville’s unhoused neighbors.
Because one good afternoon matters. But trust is built by showing up again.
Thursday’s Rise Up Nashville event is designed to meet immediate needs while connecting guests with resources that can support longer-term stability.
Services available during the event include:
Sometimes the first step forward is not a grand solution. It is a hot meal. A clean shirt. A shower. A load of laundry. Help getting across town. A healthcare conversation. Or one person willing to sit down, listen, and explain what comes next.
Those things may sound basic until you have to live without them.
ShowerUp is one of the key community partners helping serve guests at Rise Up Nashville. Through mobile shower services and personal care, the organization works to restore hope, dignity, and love to people experiencing homelessness.
A shower can mean the confidence to walk into a job interview, attend an appointment, or simply feel like yourself again. Clean clothing and access to laundry can remove another barrier that many of us never have to think twice about.
This is what dignity looks like in real life. It is not abstract. It is warm water, clean clothes, privacy, and being treated like a neighbor instead of a problem to solve.
Rise Up Nashville works because organizations with different strengths choose to stand together.
The September 24 event is supported by the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County’s Office of Homeless Services, ShowerUp, Wellpoint, Proclamation Church, Nashville Fit and B2 Wellness Suites. NOBULL, the performance footwear and apparel brand, is also a major supporter of the Rise Up mission.
Metro Nashville Police also help strengthen the outreach by connecting with community members in a service-focused environment. For people experiencing homelessness, contact with law enforcement can often happen during the most difficult moments of their lives. Rise Up offers space for a different kind of interaction, one centered on conversation, resources, familiarity, and trust.
No single organization can meet every need. That is exactly why this collaboration matters. Government services, healthcare resources, faith communities, wellness professionals, businesses, outreach organizations, and volunteers can each carry a different piece of the work.
Together, they create a stronger safety net.
At Nashville Fit, we have always believed wellness is bigger than what happens inside a gym.
Health can look like movement, strength, and nutrition. It can also look like access to clean clothing, a safe shower, a reliable meal, transportation, healthcare, and a person who knows your name.
Our role in Rise Up is to use the relationships and platform we already have to bring more people to the table. Nashville’s fitness and wellness community knows how to rally, volunteer, lead and care for others. Rise Up gives that energy somewhere meaningful to go.
Moving forward, Nashville Fit wants to help this initiative become more consistent, connected, and sustainable. That means recruiting sponsors and volunteers, amplifying the organizations already doing the work, connecting guests with health and wellness resources, and helping form partnerships that continue after the tents come down.
It also means telling these stories responsibly.
People experiencing homelessness are not projects, statistics, or background material for a feel-good post. They are our neighbors. They are parents, veterans, employees, friends, and people carrying stories we may never fully know.
They deserve support without judgment and dignity without conditions.
The future of Rise Up is not simply a larger event. It is a stronger and more dependable community network.
The goal is to create recurring opportunities where Nashville’s unhoused neighbors can find immediate care and long-term connections, where service providers can collaborate instead of working in separate lanes, and where local businesses and community members can turn good intentions into useful action.
Thursday is another step toward that future.
It may begin with a meal, a shower, fresh clothing, or a conversation with someone who knows where to call next. Those moments can look small from the outside. To the person receiving them, they may be the first sign in a long time that their city still sees them.
That is what Rise Up Nashville is really about.
Not performing kindness. Not treating people like a project. Showing up, standing beside our neighbors, and helping build a healthier Nashville that makes room for everyone.
Rise Up Nashville
Thursday, September 24, 2026
12:00 PM to 3:00 PM
Proclamation Church
308 E. Thompson Lane
Nashville, TN 37211
Local businesses, nonprofits, service providers, and volunteers interested in supporting future Rise Up events can contact Nashville Fit at info@nashvillefitmagazine.com.
Hope. Dignity. Opportunity. Together, we can rise up.
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