Nashville Scottish Rite Foundation

About the Foundation

The Nashville Scottish Rite Foundation, Inc. was issued a Charter by the State of Tennessee on February 11, 1977. The purpose of the foundation is to provide charitable, educational, and/or scientific outreach opportunities for the Nashville Scottish Rite. For a number of years following its inception, the foundation dispensed its assets to a number of charities in the Nashville area.

What It Supports

Bill Wilkerson Hearing & Speech Center

Beginning in 1992, the foundation named as its adopted Masonic charity “The Bill Wilkerson Center, Inc.” In recognition, the Bill Wilkerson Center renamed its research department the “Scottish Rite Masons Research Institute for Communication Disorders.” Since that time, the Research Center has received over $700,000 from the Nashville Scottish Rite Foundation, Inc.

The new RiteCare center includes an anechoic chamber — a research facility designed to create an echo-less environment for pure-sound research. Studies there include the perception of sound in motion, sound localization, and other basic research that can lead to new hearing aid technology.

RiteCare®

Scottish Rite Childhood Language Program

RiteCare® is the Scottish Rite’s national Childhood Language Program (SRCLP). It began in the early 1950s in Colorado, when the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry of the Southern Jurisdiction started a program to help children with speech and language disorders. The results led to RiteCare SRCLP clinics that provide diagnostic evaluation and treatment of speech and language disorders, as well as learning disabilities.

Today SRCLP clinics, centers, and special programs operate or are planned throughout the United States, each staffed by speech-language pathologists or other trained personnel. Tens of thousands of youngsters across the country have been helped significantly — children who might have remained educationally behind can now talk, read, and lead productive lives.

Who It Serves

As a rule, SRCLP clinics accept preschool children who have difficulty speaking or understanding the spoken word, and school-age children who have difficulty learning to read; some centers also offer literacy training for adults. All services are available regardless of race, creed, or the family’s inability to pay.

How It’s Funded

Funding for the SRCLP is provided by the Scottish Rite Foundation, Southern Jurisdiction, USA, Inc., and local Scottish Rite Foundations — such as the Nashville Scottish Rite Foundation.

Learn more about RiteCare®

Contact

Nashville Scottish Rite
100 7th Ave North, Nashville, TN 37203
615-259-3434 · [email protected]
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