Crossroads Campus, a nonprofit in Nashville, Tennessee, changes lives by pairing animal rescue and adoption with paid job training and affordable housing for young adults who face barriers such as poverty, homelessness, time in foster care, or other trauma. Animals receive care, socialization, and foster homes, while participants gain work experience, community, and a more stable footing. Best Friends Animal Society profiled the organization in a feature by Alison Cocchiara published January 20, 2026, and the account below draws on that feature and on Crossroads Campus’s own description of its programs.
What Crossroads Campus does
Crossroads runs a single model with several connected parts. Young adults learn job skills in pet-related work, and the animals in its care gain time, attention, and a route to a home. According to Crossroads’s official website, its programs include:
- Paid job-training internships in a pet retail store, a grooming salon, an animal care and adoption center, and a dog-treat bakery.
- Social-work case management for participants, alongside intensive support services.
- Access to affordable, income-based housing for participants.
- Dog and cat adoption, plus owner education for people adopting or caring for pets.
- Retail and grooming services, with proceeds from its shop supporting the mission.
The website describes Crossroads as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which means donations to it are tax-deductible in the United States, subject to the donor’s own tax situation.
How the idea started and grew
The Best Friends feature traces the concept to conversations among Lisa Stetar, Emmylou Harris, and Father Charles Strobel about connecting homeless people with pets. The first Crossroads operation opened in a historic Nashville home, with pet adoptions and a small retail shop where young adults facing poverty and homelessness could learn job skills.
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From that start, the feature reports that the organization added grooming, affordable housing, a second campus, a cat café, and further animal-care and retail training. Each addition extended the same logic: a job or a home for a person, and care or a placement for an animal.
Program growth: what the reported figures show
The feature quotes CEO Lisa Stetar on two measures of growth, as reported by Best Friends in January 2026:
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- The adoption program grew to three times its earlier size.
- Housing capacity increased from four beds to 26.
These are organization-reported figures. They describe scale, not outcomes. No independent evaluation, audited measurement, or comparable benchmark for Crossroads was identified in the material reviewed for this article, so the growth numbers should not be read as a verified effectiveness rate, such as the share of participants who find stable work or housing. The organization’s own published outcome data, if it releases any, would be the next place to look.
Salsa’s story: how shy animals are cared for
The feature’s main case study is Salsa, a timid brindle dog who arrived at Crossroads frightened. She would crouch or freeze when staff approached to take her for a walk. K’Terra Nunn, a Crossroads program alumna who is now an assistant manager, visited Salsa repeatedly, building a relationship at a pace the dog could tolerate. Nunn and her partner then fostered Salsa, and the feature recounts that the dog grew more confident at home. Nunn later adopted her.
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The story treats time, patience, and fostering as the core of care for shy animals. It also mentions treats and warm places to rest as comforts in that environment. These details describe the setting in which Salsa recovered; they are not veterinary or behavior advice, and they are not a guarantee that any given animal will respond the same way.
According to Stetar, Crossroads also takes in shy or shut-down dogs and cats from city and rural shelters, giving animals that need quiet and time a place to settle before adoption.
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In their own words
The following statements are quoted in the feature. They are personal and organizational perspectives, not independent evaluations of the program.
- Lisa Stetar, Crossroads Campus CEO: “Our model enables young adults who have been impacted by inequity, time in foster care, or other traumas to find purpose, build community, and work toward sustainable futures.”
- Lisa Stetar, Crossroads Campus CEO: “The young adults are helping animals heal, and the animals are helping them heal right back.”
- Emmylou Harris, Crossroads founding board member: “It’s a beautiful concept that brings young people who need a chance together with homeless pets.”
- K’Terra Nunn, Crossroads program alumna and assistant manager: “You learn skills you can carry with you anywhere.”
How to get involved
The Best Friends feature invites readers to foster, adopt, and advocate for pets, and Best Friends lists Crossroads as a Nashville partner in its network. Three practical routes follow from the material:
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- Adopt. Crossroads places dogs and cats through its adoption center in Nashville. Check the organization’s current adoption listings and hours before visiting, because availability changes.
- Foster. Ask Crossroads whether it has a foster need that fits your home, especially for shy animals that do better with a quiet, low-pressure space. Fostering is the route the Salsa story describes. Plan for a few weeks or longer of patient, gradual work, and confirm the terms, support, and any supplies the organization provides before you commit.
- Donate or support the mission. Crossroads’s website offers a direct donation option and describes a monthly CHANGE-MAKER giving program. This is a charitable giving route, not an affiliate or referral arrangement.
If you are preparing a home for a shy animal, the comforts the feature mentions are a sensible starting point: a warm, quiet resting place and treats used to build positive associations. Crossroads’s shop sells pet products, so ask the staff what they recommend rather than relying on a specific brand.
Verifying details before you act
Program offerings, adoption availability, donation options, and program sizes can change after publication. The Best Friends feature is dated January 20, 2026, and the Crossroads website does not show a publication date for its program descriptions. Confirm current details directly with Crossroads Campus in Nashville before making a donation, applying for a job or housing, or committing to fostering.
The feature describes its own sources as organization leaders and staff. For independent information on any organization’s finances, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service publishes nonprofit status through its Tax Exempt Organization Search, which you can use to confirm 501(c)(3) status for Crossroads or any other charity.
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