The Tennessee Equality Project will soon have office space in Nashville, located at the corner of Hart Lane and Ben Allen Road and directly across from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI).
"The sign is up," said TEP President Christopher Sanders. "We're about to move into our 617 Hart Lane Nashville location with two other great GLBT organizations -- Out & About Newspaper and One-in-Teen. We'll be holding our next board meeting in the new space this coming weekend."
Sanders said the group would use the meeting room for board and community meetings and would have a small work area that they would use for office functions and an area for an intern to work.
The meeting room is space leased by One-in-Teen, which is allowing other community groups to use the space for meetings when OIT is not using it. The Nashville GLBT Chamber of Commerce board of directors recently used the meeting room for a board meeting.
Sanders said the location puts TEP in the neighborhood of many of its members (the Inglewood/East Nashville area) and was on a roadway that was easily accessible.
"Interestingly, we're across from the TBI's offices," Sanders said. "That should provide some good opportunities to talk about hate crimes. We're also within easy distance of some of the neighborhoods where many of our members live."
The office space that TEP will occupy is in a part of the building that was going to be used by other occupants as a small break area. One of the occupants suggested giving up the space to allow for a small desk that TEP could use and benefit the community.
"We're grateful to Out & About Newspaper for the donation of the space that we would otherwise not be able to afford," Sanders said. "We also appreciate One-in-Teen allowing us and other community organizations to use their meeting space."
One small office space remains for lease in the building. The office is approximately 10 x 11 and will lease for $350 a month. The lease includes utilities and Internet. For more information contact Joey Leslie at editor@outvoices.us or call 615-596-6210.