Current Campaigns
Annual Fund Campaign
The ChildNet East Tennessee fundraising campaign is currently underway with a goal of $1.5 million.
The campaign will fund the ChildNet East Tennessee program which reaches out to uninsured children ages 2 through 18, with mental, emotional or behavioral problems who experience financial or insurance eligibility barriers when trying to access mental health care.
Reaching the goal of $1.1 million will allow the McNabb Center to serve at least 200 children per year for five years through the ChildNet East Tennessee program. Father and son, Bo Shafer and Andy Shafer of Shafer Insurance are spearheading the effort as the campaign's co-chairs. Donations to the campaign can be made on the Center's website, www.mcnabbcenter.org or by check, payable to Helen Ross McNabb Foundation, mailed to 201 West Springdale Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37917.
ChildNet is the only program of its kind in East Tennessee. While there are numerous children's mental health services in the East Tennessee region, the McNabb Center is unique in its efforts to raise philanthropic funds to provide an integrated service team of psychiatrists, nurses, therapists and case managers for uninsured children. Services offered include psychiatric assessment, therapy, medication evaluation, counseling and case management.
The Center has provided services to nearly 2,500 children in Blount, Knox and Sevier counties since ChildNet's inception in 2002. Although the results of the program have exceeded expectations, the Center is still confronted with an overwhelming number of children who urgently need services. This apparent need has prompted the expansion of ChildNet services to operate out of facilities located in Blount, Campbell, Hamblen, Knox and Sevier counties which will provide access to services for children living in and around these counties.
Blount County Campaign
The Center is in the process of raising money to build permanent facility for adults and children in outreach services in Blount County. The Center has provided high quality mental health and addiction services in Blount County for more than 10 years. The newest property, a 1.5 acre site located at 1704 E. Broadway Ave. Maryville, TN 37804 will allow the Center to expand its services offered in the area. Work is expected to begin later this fall on the 8,500 square foot building designed by Johnson Architecture with a completion date of summer 2011. This facility will provide space for psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, master level clinicians, and bachelor prepared therapists to provide mental healthcare in an onsite setting. It will also provide a home base for therapists and case managers to go out into the community's schools and homes to meet our client's needs. The Helen Ross McNabb Center's desire is to be a fixture in the community and a valued partner as part of the healthcare continuum in Blount County.
Past Campaigns
Housing 1st Campaign
The Helen Ross McNabb Center is constructing 32 homeless and special needs housing units in Knoxville. This fundraising effort is in conjunction with Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam's and Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale's "Ten Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness."
According to Dr. Roger Nooe, professor emeritus at the UT College of Social Work, over the course of a year up to 9,000 people may be homeless in Knoxville and Knox County. In our community as many as 1,900 people may be homeless in a given month. The chronically homeless represent 10 percent of our homeless population yet consume 50 percent of the resources. The mentally ill and addicts make up 60 percent of the chronically homeless. Supportive services double the likelihood that individuals will remain in permanent housing after 12 months. Our community's annual cost of 1 chronically homeless person excluding food and shelter is $37,000. Chronically, mentally ill, homeless people in Knoxville and Knox County have very few options available to obtain safe, permanent, affordable housing. The process to obtain housing often includes a maze of paperwork and agencies that must be maneuvered through and many find it just too difficult. The lack of a permanent address has the added consequence of making employment almost impossible, and not having a job makes getting safe housing impossible.
The McNabb Center's Housing 1st plans are to build and fully fund 32 units (eight-units in each apartment style building) for the homeless in several locations around the Knoxville area. These will be one bedroom/efficiency apartments with each building having a common area for tenants to meet with support services personnel.
Having mental health services integrated into the Housing First model will allow for greater success assimilating into the community.
Hank Bertelkamp, Warren Payne, Dale Keasling and Dr. Joseph Johnson, will be leading the fundraising drive for the Center.
Breaking ground at the Cox Street location for Housing 1st.
Springdale Pharmacy Campaign
The Springdale Pharmacy campaign raised funds for an on-site pharmacy for the adult center on Springdale Avenue. Going to the local pharmacy to have a prescription filled is a relatively simple task for most people, however for individuals with mental illness, meeting even basic mental health needs like having a prescription filled can be an overwhelming task. The addition of an on-site pharmacy provides our clients with the ability to receive treatment for their illness and receive their medications in the same place. This "one-stop" concept will enhance adherence to important treatment regimens by removing many of the roadblocks that currently exist for this population.
For more information on campaigns, please call the Helen Ross McNabb Foundation at 865.541.6684 or e-mail us at hrmcnabbfoundation@mcnabb.org
