Katrina (Trina) Frierson, President/CEO
Katrina (Trina) Frierson’s story exemplifies redemption. After years of struggling with addiction, Trina experienced life on the streets, periods of homelessness, incarceration, and losing custody of her children. She received the support she needed to establish and maintain her sobriety in order to regain her life. In an effort to pay it forward, Trina felt led to serve women in similar situations. She saw the need for a long-term program that addressed addiction but also offered life-changing support, therapy, and job skills that are crucial to life-long recovery. Trina founded Mending Hearts in 2004. In its infancy, Mending Hearts owned 1 home and treated 7 women. The program has now grown to 15 homes and has served over 5,400 women, becoming a critical resource for treating women in Middle Tennessee. It was essential to Trina to not only help individuals but also to transform her community. She has played an integral part in revitalizing West Nashville. It is Trina’s belief that it is her duty to rebuild a community where she was once part of its demise. Trina has turned inhabitable dwellings into homes filled with hope, to bring healing and beautification to her community and the women in it.
Mending Hearts’ mission is to provide shelter, hope, and healing to women who are homeless due to addiction and co-occurring mental health disorders. We nurture women through the recovery process. Our model seeks to reintegrate the women we serve back into society with the tools needed to not only maintain sobriety but also to thrive.
Today Mending Hearts is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in Nashville, TN and has served over 5,400 women. Mending Hearts’ continuum of care includes a licensed Social Setting Detox and Residential Emergency Shelter, Transitional Housing, Independent Living and Permanent Housing for our Mom’s with Kids program. Mending Hearts has the capacity to serve 110 women at a time who dare to believe that they, too, can achieve the change they need to see in their own lives. Mending Hearts serves the Middle Tennessee and beyond.