Memphis is a city focused on community, and our many special services and programs are a testament to what we can do for each other. We’ve compiled a list of some of these services around town that can help with everything from educational needs to legal help. You can also donate or volunteer with these causes if you’d like.
Children and Youth Guidance
Best Buddies Tennessee
Best Buddies in Tennessee offers one-to-one friendship, integrated employment, and leadership development programs for individuals with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) in Tennessee.
Big Brothers/Big Sisters
Big Brothers Big Sisters is a one-to-one mentoring organization that supports our city’s children and their families through friendships with caring adults who serve as volunteer mentors.
Boys & Girls Clubs
The Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Memphis (BGCM) provides after-school care for children ages 6-18 with programs in six core areas of education and leadership, character development, healthy life choices, career awareness, athletics, and the arts. Students also take part in site-by-site programs, including karate, ballet, robotics, foreign languages, cultural studies, soccer, tennis, and much more. BGCM is a safe, stable place that ensures physical and emotional safety while discouraging crime and violence in our local communities.
Porter-Leath Children’s Center
Porter-Leath is a non-profit focused on empowering children and families to achieve a healthy, optimal, and independent lifestyle through community programs and outreach.
Crisis Service and Special Needs
Dismas House
The mission of Dismas House is to create a safe haven for formerly incarcerated men transitioning out of prison—a place that would build a deeper sense of community for both parties and would help returning citizens find supportive services, obtain jobs, and become full and successful participants in the larger society.
Hope House
Hope House aims to improve the quality of life for individuals and families affected by HIV and poverty through services such as early childhood education in a safe, loving environment for children infected or affected by HIV/AIDS, community resources to ensure our children and adult’s needs are met, and other assistive programs.
REP Memphis
REP empowers refugees and immigrants in Memphis, TN, by offering high-quality, tailored programming that encourages, educates, and equips individuals, families, and the community.
YWCA Abused Women’s Services
The YWCA of Greater Memphis Abused Women’s Services (YWCA-AWS) empowers domestic violence survivors to take control of their lives while offering them safety and the resources to ensure their self-sufficiency. Domestic violence is any pattern of behaviors that attempts to control and intimidate a partner or family member through fear, manipulation, isolation, financial abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse and/or verbal abuse.
Disabilities and Independent Living
Memphis Center for Independent Living (MCIL)
The Memphis Center for Independent Living offers comprehensive Independent Living Programs that provide people with disabilities with the advocacy, training, resources, and peer support needed to live independently.
Shelby Residential and Vocational Services (SRVS)
Shelby Residential and Vocational Services’ (SRVS) mission is to provide the services that people with disabilities need to live meaningful lives as members of their communities.
Healthcare
Christ Community Health Services
The Christ Community Health Services offers physical, mental, and spiritual healing through compassionate care to meet the needs of the medically underserved in our community.
Church Health Center
The Church Health Center is a faith-based healthcare not-for-profit dedicated to making the highest quality healthcare accessible to more Memphians, especially those facing social and economic challenges. They conduct an average of 60,000 patient visits a year in Memphis and serve as a model for countless communities across the nation.
Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood is one of the nation’s leading providers of high-quality, affordable health care and the nation’s largest provider of sex education. With or without insurance, you can always come to us for your health care. If you’re concerned about cost, you may qualify for low- or no-cost services.
Literacy and Education
Literacy Mid-South
Literacy Mid-South provides literacy resources to learners of all backgrounds and ages through innovative literacy programs, access to a wide range of literacy resources, volunteer tutoring for adults to improve reading or English language skills, and cross-sector coalitions that align strategic partners.
REACH Memphis
REACH is a college prep program for high school students in Shelby County, Tennessee. This nonprofit prepares high-potential students from public high schools for college and careers through mentoring, exposure to summer academic/leadership experiences, intensive college preparation counseling, and career planning.
WYPL Talking Library
The WYPL Talking Library reads news and other printed information on the library’s public radio station, intended for the visually impaired.
Meals and Shelters
Habitat for Humanity
Habitat for Humanity of Greater Memphis works in partnership with families in need of adequate shelter to build decent, affordable homes. The homes are then sold to Habitat’s partner families, at no profit and with basically no interest charged. Partner families invest hundreds of hours of their own labor — sweat equity — into building their homes and the homes of others. Their mortgage payments go into a revolving “Fund for Humanity” that is used to help more families build decent, affordable homes.
Homes for Hearts
Homes for Hearts builds single-family tiny homes for people experiencing homelessness and partners with organizations to help move Memphians toward affordable and sustainable homeownership.
Memphis Family Shelter
Memphis Family Shelter is the primary provider of domestic violence services in West Tennessee. The YWCA empowers domestic violence survivors to take control of their lives while offering them safety and the resources to ensure their self-sufficiency.
Memphis Tilth
Memphis Tilth is a community garden and food hub that aggregates locally grown produce and other agricultural items from local producers and farmers and then distributes them to community members via a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) style produce subscription. They also use this network to source local products for restaurants, hospitals, and other outlets.
Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association (MIFA)
MIFA supports the independence of vulnerable seniors and families in crisis through high-impact programs such as Meals on Wheels and long-term care.
Legal and Environmental Causes
CASA Court Appointed Advocates
Court Appointed Special Advocates are screened, trained, qualified community volunteers appointed by judges to advocate for the best interests of children who have been abused or neglected.
Mid-South Peace & Justice Center
The Mid-South Peace and Justice Center is a multi-issue, multi-race organization whose mission is to engage, organize, and mobilize communities to realize social justice through nonviolent action. We work to educate and train new community leaders to lead campaigns for racial, economic, environmental, and social justice
Wolf River Conservancy
The Wolf River Conservancy is a non-profit land that aims to protect and restore the Wolf River watershed through community service projects, serving as River Guides and Greenway Ambassadors, or assisting with many other efforts.
