Photos by Skyler Wendell, Sidelines
Story by Shauna Reynolds
A safe place to sleep. A listening ear. A chance to live. Everyone needs these things, but some people struggle to find them.
Many organizations want to help, and advocates populate the Non-Profit Village at
Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival. Most set up tents to raise awareness, not funds. And though the focus and methods may vary, the purpose is the same – striving to give people the simple human needs we all deserve. The results are life-changing – or even life-saving.
Nashville Launch Pad gives young adults experiencing homelessness a safe place to sleep. This Nashville, Tennessee, organization operates transitional housing programs and an emergency shelter. Though other shelters may not exclude young people, they’re not specifically equipped to meet the unique needs of a vulnerable segment of an already served population
“Queer young adults specifically have different needs,” said Micah Sciarappa, Nashville Launch Pad’s program director. “They fall through the cracks a lot easier.”
They don’t always know where to get help, or even that it’s okay to accept it, Sciarappa said.
Nashville Launch Pad connects with other Nashville non-profits like Shower the People.
“They’re amazing,” Sciarappa said. “They do our laundry, they’re how we have our sheets turned over every week.”
Shower the People makes sure everyone has the opportunity to shower easily.
“Everyone knows and understands the importance of a shower,” said executive director Meredith MacLeod Jaulin. “And to not have a shower is really dehumanizing to folks.”
Shower the People delivers this opportunity with an unconventional mobile shower facility – a converted school bus.
Bonnaroo sponsors the group. The repurposed contraption is in line with Bonnaroo’s environmental focus, and someone joined the group’s board of directors after conversations at the festival.
“My hope for the future is to not have a job anymore, because homelessness is solved,” Jaulin said.
Many of the non-profits tabling at Bonnaroo feature strong connections to music. Punk Rock Saves Lives provides harm reduction materials and mental health resources. But the biggest goal is growing the bone marrow registry by swabbing potential donors at music events.
“The rule of the pit is: someone falls down and we pick them up,” said Rob Rushing, founder of Punk Rock Saves Lives. “That should be a rule of life.”
Nearly 5,000 Bonnaroovians have been swabbed since the organization’s first year at Bonnaroo, and 14 of them donated to patients. Rushing calls the impact “unbelievable.”
Mental health organization Nuçi’s Space tabled at Bonnaroo for the first time this year. The group traveled from the musical mecca of Athens, Georgia.
“It’s about making that connection with musicians who are struggling with either depression or anxiety,” Debbie Watson, executive director of Nuçi’s Space, said. “We help musicians in our town and our community with suicide prevention.”
Nuçi’s Space maintains practice spots for bands, giving them the opportunity to meet musicians in need – often before that need arises. Connecting them with counselors can prevent future tragedies.
“I would love it if there was never a suicide anymore,” Watson said.
William Perry and Ingela Travers-Hayward, founders of This Must Be the Place, also do life-saving work. Festivalgoers find this group in Bonnaroo’s campground and temporary city, Outeroo.
“We want to be where there’s a lot of foot traffic,” Travers-Hayward said, “because a lot of people need this stuff.”
This Must Be the Place provides Naloxone, a drug that reverses the effects of opioid overdose.
Naloxone distribution requires more than a handout of the potentially life-saving drug.
Perry and Travers-Howard spend a few minutes with festivalgoers to teach proper Naloxone use.
“This isn’t like a passive engagement,” Perry said. “This is something that when we give it to them, we need to be out in the campground.”
The founders believe music festivals are the best place to reach as many people as possible.
“It’s possible to get safety supplies in someone’s hand before a tragedy causes them to feel the need to do so,” Perry said. “We are trying to get ahead of that tragedy.”
Travers-Howard has the same wish for the future as many of these advocates: for her work to be unnecessary.
“I hope in three years Fentanyl is under control and I’m out of a job,” Travers-Howard said.
Shauna Reynolds is the Lifestyles Editor for MTSU Sidelines
To contact the Lifestyles Editor, email [email protected].
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