The 2022 Community Needs Evaluation by Metro Social Services revealed that more than half of older adults in Nashville are experiencing livable income poverty.
This report, along with national data underscoring the financial insecurity faced by a significant number of older adults, prompted AgeWell and United Way to partner in addressing the need. RESET launched in 2024, creating the first coordinated financial empowerment network for adults 50+ in Nashville.
Five nonprofit partners - AgeWell Middle Tennessee, FiftyForward, NeedLink Nashville, Tennessee Justice Center and United Way of Greater Nashville - formed the Secure Aging Collaborative to provide confidential financial counseling, benefit enrollment assistance and referral to supplemental income opportunities. Together, we are providing free, personalized assistance to boost the financial security of our older (age 50+) neighbors who live in Nashville/Davidson County.
2024 Impact
- RESET Partners served 1,656 Davidson County residents age 50+ with benefit screenings, application assistance, financial counseling, and providing information about supplemental income opportunities.
-
RESET
Partners
assisted
Nashvillians
age
50+
with
2,109
benefit
applications,
including
emergency
rent
&
utility
assistance,
valued
at
$689,023.*
- *based on NCOA's calculation of the dollar amount of the benefit as VOB (Value of Benefit)
- The Financial Empowerment Center provided 365 counseling sessions to 145 Nashvillians age 50+ resulting in $114,810 cumulative savings increase and $457,294 debt reduction.
RESET draws upon the strengths and successful outcomes of established local programs that currently serve older adults but operate in silos. The RESET collaborative links these programs through a shared, closed-loop data and referral system, creating a network to better serve older Nashvillians (50 years and older) and help them age in place by streamlining application processes for multiple benefit programs, providing better access to free financial counseling and assistance in accessing sources of supplemental income.
AgeWell Middle Tennessee serves as the backbone agency for the collaborative, convening monthly partner meetings, fostering systems change and collaboration, operating the closed loop shared data and referral system, conducting & coordinating community outreach, providing benefits eligibility screening and client intake, tracking service data and reporting to funders.
United Way’s Financial Empowerment Center, a partnership with the Office of the Mayor of Metro Nashville-Davidson County – Freddie O’Connell, provides confidential, personalized financial counseling and is AgeWell’s partner in leading this effort.
FiftyForward, NeedLink Nashville and Tennessee Justice Center provide benefit screening and application assistance including Medicare Part D Extra Help, Medicare Savings Programs, TennCare (Medicaid), SNAP, LIHEAP, rental assistance and utility assistance.
Looking forward, we’re excited to add Metro Action Commission as a RESET Partner in 2025. This vital collaborative and systems change initiative is possible thanks to generous support from these local and national funders, and we welcome additional support for RESET sustainability.
- Jackson
- The West End Home Foundation
- Memorial Foundation
- Community Foundation of Middle TN – The Women’s Fund
- First Horizon Foundation
- HCA Foundation
- Vine Street Christian Church
- Office of Mayor Freddie O’Connell (support for the Financial Empowerment Center)
- National Council on Aging
- AARP Foundation