Homelessness Archives - Page 2 of 2

Shelters to Shutters and Preface

March 11, 2021 by Mike

Giving Back To Gwinnett

Shelters to Shutters and Preface

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Andy Helmer/Shelters to Shutters

Shelters to Shutters is a national 501c3 organization that transitions individuals and families out of homelessness to economic self-sufficiency by educating and engaging the real estate industry to provide employment and housing opportunities.

Jonathan “JT” Wu/Preface

Founded in 2019, Preface is a national public-private philanthropic initiative dedicated to fostering Equality Through Education & early childhood literacy – often with a multilingual twist! Partnering with educators and community leaders across America, Preface empowers local high schoolers to give back to their communities and bridge opportunity gaps by fostering literacy among young students. A federally recognized 501(c)(3) organization, Preface is proudly headquartered in Gwinnett County, GA.

Kidney Donor Match and Feed The Streetz Foundation

May 14, 2020 by Mike

Giving Back To Gwinnett

Kidney Donor Match and Feed The Streetz Foundation

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Jariel Jones, Tom Vooris, Amanda Hayhurst

Amanda Hayhurst/Kidney Donor Match

The goal of Kidney Donor Match is to tell the personal story of every person on the kidney wait list. They believe there is great power in stories. Connections are built and empathy is born. They are passionate about helping patients find their life-saving kidney donor and raising living kidney donor awareness so that others not only feel more comfortable with donating, but excited to donate. As fellow kidney donors, they know how extraordinary it is for both the donor and recipient when someone steps up to give this incredible gift of life.

Jariel Jones/Feed The Streetz Foundation

Feed The Streetz Foundation is a nonprofit organization based in Atlanta, GA. Their mission is to fight homelessness hunger, help homeless people come out of poverty, change people’s lives for the better, and change the world for the better.

Giving Back to Gwinnett
is presented by

Holly York, North Fulton Community Charities

March 31, 2020 by John Ray

North Fulton Business Radio

Holly York, North Fulton Community Charities

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“North Fulton Business Radio,” Episode 206: Holly York, North Fulton Community Charities

Holly York, Executive Director of North Fulton Community Charities, discusses how her organization is responding to rapidly increasing food and financial assistance needs of families in North Fulton, and how you can help. She also discusses how the current crisis exposes a significant rise in financial vulnerability in North Fulton in recent years. The host of “North Fulton Business Radio” is John Ray and the show is broadcast from the North Fulton Business RadioX® studio in Alpharetta.

Holly York, Executive Director, North Fulton Community Charities

North Fulton Community Charities assists residents living in North Fulton serving the cities of Alpharetta, Johns Creek, Milton, Mountain Park and Roswell with short-term emergency needs. Since 1983, NFCC has addressed homelessness and hunger in North Fulton. The need for crisis, transitional, and affordable housing continues to be a problem in the community. NFCC’s programs and services have grown to meet the challenges of North Fulton residents needing short-term assistance. The community continues to volunteer and offer generous support to help their neighbors–working families, single mothers, seniors, and veterans. The domino effect of poverty is stopped when we help a family remain in their home with food and resources.

NFCC collaborates with many local providers to provide the resources necessary to help individuals and families remain stable in our community. NFCC provides services in English and Spanish.

In response to the rapid spread of COVID-19 and the recommendations of public health officials, NFCC is temporarily suspending most programs focus on emergency services during this public health crisis. Further, volunteer shifts are suspended to reduce the number of people in NFCC buildings. The Food Pantry is open by appointment and Financial Assistance is available via the NFCC website. While these measures are taken for public safety, NFCC embraces its role to provide emergency services during this crisis.

As a provider of emergency services, NFCC is monitoring the situation closely and will continue to do everything possible to keep a clean and safe environment so they can stay open for the individuals and families that need their services.

For more information, go to their website. The most needed items list is constantly updated on their website.

Questions and Topics in this Interview:

Financial vulnerability in North Fulton
homelessness and hunger in North Fulton
suburban poverty
North Fulton Poverty Task Force
Food Pantry
Financial assistance

If you are interested in the work of the North Fulton Poverty Task Force, mentioned in this interview, go to their website, where you can read and download their 2019 report, Our Invisible Neighbors: Financial Vulnerability in North Fulton, here.

North Fulton Business Radio” is broadcast from the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® in Alpharetta. You can find the full archive of shows by following this link. The show is available on all the major podcast apps, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, iHeart Radio, Stitcher, TuneIn, and others.

Renasant Bank has humble roots, starting in 1904 as a $100,000 bank in a Lee County, Mississippi, bakery. Since then, Renasant has grown to become one of the Southeast’s strongest financial institutions with over $13 billion in assets and more than 190 banking, lending, wealth management and financial services offices in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida. All of Renasant’s success stems from each of their banker’s commitment to investing in their communities as a way of better understanding the people they serve. At Renasant Bank, they understand you because they work and live alongside you every day.

Aaron Raine with the City of Mesa and Arricka Crayton with Olive Branch HHC E30

February 1, 2020 by Karen

Phoenix Business Radio

Aaron Raine with the City of Mesa and Arricka Crayton with Olive Branch HHC E30

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Aaron Raine with the City of Mesa and Arricka Crayton with Olive Branch HHC E30

Detective Aaron Raine started with the Mesa Police Department in July 2006. He trained as a CIT (Crisis Intervention Team) in 2008. He attended the FBI Crisis/Hostage Negotiator School and SWAT 2011.

Since 2011 he has been a Crisis/Hostage Negotiator in the Mesa PD SWAT team as a collateral duty. Detective Raine has been on over 220 SWAT/CRISIS operations as a crisis negotiator. During most of that same time, he was also a tactical flight officer in the Mesa PD Aviation Unit.

Starting in 2016 he was one of the original members of the Mesa PD Crisis Response Team. In January 2018 he was reassigned from the Police Department to the Mayor/City Manager’s Office to head up the city’s efforts on homelessness, building a better model on how Mesa deals with homelessness. In 2018 he was named the Police Officer of the year for the State of Arizona by the Arizona Chiefs of Police.

Arricka Crayton graduated from Mesa Community Court and received transitional life counseling. Mesa Community Court provides a way for the homeless population to receive resources in place of being incarcerated. This was a very important step for her progressive life success, and all of her charges were dropped.

Aaron Raine helped Arricka to get back into massage therapy and she created Olive Branch Holistic Healthcare in response to the opioid epidemic.

Olive Branch HHC provides complementary pain management treatments, specializing in medical massage. The idea is to release the reason for the pain so there is no reason for high dose pain medication.

Follow Olive Branch HHC on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

About 3C Amplified

3C Amplified puts the spotlight on change makers in our communities. Listen in as we share how businesses, nonprofits and community minded individuals are connecting, creating and collaborating to amplify their impact and create positive change in the world.

Want to be part of the conversation? Join us in The 3C Community! Our members create together a collection of stories, experiences, and practical ideas for taking action and implementing change through collaboration and community partnerships between individuals, businesses and nonprofits.

About Jacqueline Destremps

Jacqueline Destremps is a creative marketing strategist and founded Another Hand Advantage, LLC in 2014 to help community minded small business owners and nonprofit professionals move forward more confidently with their marketing strategy. After graduating from Arizona State University with a degree in Psychology, she has spent her professional career working in both the nonprofit and for-profit sector.

She now enjoys being self-employed and the flexibility it provides to allow more time to volunteer, serve on nonprofit boards, choose pro-bono projects, run 100+ Women Who Care Valley of the Sun (which she co-founded in 2014) and travel the world. Jacqueline believes in creating connections between businesses and nonprofits in the community to stimulate growth and collaboration.

Follow AHA on Instagram and Facebook.

NORTH ATLANTA’S BIZLINK: 2018 Small Business of the Year and 2018 Non-Profit of the Year

October 16, 2018 by John Ray

North Fulton Studio

NORTH ATLANTA'S BIZLINK: 2018 Small Business of the Year and 2018 Non-Profit of the Year

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Nicole Sterghos, Andy Kadrich, Joan O’Connell

Andy Kadrich/Turf Masters Lawn Care

In the fall of 2002, Andy Kadrich started Turf Masters Lawn Care from the basement of his home in the Brookfield subdivision in Roswell, GA. His goal was to create a lawn care business with the resources of a national company, but with a level of service and quality only a family-owned business could provide. Turf Masters now services 35,000 customers through 10 branch locations in four Southeastern states. In 2018, Turf Masters will achieve 15 million dollars in annual revenue. Andy attributes Turf Masters’ success to his philosophy of honoring customers, honoring employees and always doing the right thing.

Joan O’Connell/HomeStretch

Joan O’Connell joined HomeStretch in August of 2013 after serving as a contracted grant writer through Palmetto Grant Consultants for six months. Joan has an M.S.W. from Georgia State University, 2001 and received a License Master Social Worker from the State of Georgia in 2002 which continues to present. Joan received her B.S. in Social Work from Adelphi University in Garden City, N.Y. In addition to Development Director at HomeStretch, Joan is serving as Operations Officer to provide day to day oversight until a new Executive Director is named.

Joan has over 20 years of experience in grant writing, development, community organization and non-profit administration. She spent eight years as Executive Director of Cobb Community Collaborative, three years as founding director of Cobb Literacy Council, and has served as Program Director with Cobb & Douglas Public Health Department, Outreach Worker in Freeport, N.Y. and foster care worker at St. Christopher’s Home in N.Y. In addition to social work, Joan has a certificate in Risk Management and has served as Risk Manager for Cobb County Public Schools, consultant with Georgia School Boards Association and L.R.F. Risk Management in Great Neck, N.Y., plus insurance claims and brokerage experience.

Damien Godfrey with Lydia’s Place

June 7, 2018 by Mike

Beyond The Cupola

Damien Godfrey with Lydia's Place

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“Beyond the Cupola” allows invited customers, community, and team members of Oconee State Bank to have an opportunity to share their stories of success and inspiration, and/or how the Remarkable culture of Oconee State Bank has inspired them to mark lives in their own right.

Damien Godfrey/Lydia’s Place

Lydia’s Place serves young adults from ages 14 to 26 who have experienced foster care or homelessness. Built on Christian principles, they seek to demonstrate God’s love by providing basic needs during the transition to independent living.

Lydia’s Place is currently working to fund an on-campus apartment at the University of Georgia to be used for emergency housing. Students in need of housing will be given a place to stay for up to two weeks while a more permanent housing plan is being established.

Their next step is to build or renovate a larger facility in order to provide housing to needful students from UGA as well as surrounding schools such as Athens Technical College, Piedmont College and University of North Georgia.

Family Promise of Gwinnett County, Furkids, and Gwinnett Ballet Theatre

July 8, 2016 by Mike

Giving Back To Gwinnett

Family Promise of Gwinnett County, Furkids, and Gwinnett Ballet Theatre

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Lynn Robinette, Chuck Ferraro, Samantha Shelton, Holley Calmes

Chuck Ferraro/Family Promise of Gwinnett County

Family Promise of Gwinnett is a faith based organization that serves children and their families experiencing homelessness in Gwinnett County. Their mission is to mobilize communities of congregations that partner with social service agencies to end homelessness, one family at a time.

Samantha Shelton/Furkids

Furkids is a 501c3 nonprofit charitable organization that operates the largest cage-free, no-kill shelter in the Southeast for rescued cats and a no-kill division for dogs. At these locations, animals experience the best care in a loving, safe environment until they are adopted into forever homes. The Furkids mission is to help end pet overpopulation in Georgia through sterilization, high-quality adoption and by providing valuable spay/neuter services and pet care education to people in the community. Furkids cares for more animals on a daily basis than any other local organization and has rescued and altered more than 20,000 animals since its founding in 2002. Approximately 1,100 animals are in the Furkids program today, located in the Furkids shelters, 13 PetSmart and Petco adoption centers, and 400 foster homes.

Holley Calmes/Gwinnett Ballet Theatre

Gwinnett Ballet Theatre was Gwinnett’s first performing arts non-profit, founded in 1977. It is one of only three totally non-profit dance organizations in the Atlanta metro area, with both the school and the company holding a 501C3 status. Their annual production of “The Nutcracker” will celebrate its 35th Anniversary this holiday season when it presents this family favorite classic December 2-18 at the Infinite Energy Theatre in Duluth. Over 12,000 individuals annually enjoy this well-loved ballet.

Ben Minor, Children’s Restoration Network

July 20, 2015 by angishields

Pro Advocate Radio

Ben Minor, Children's Restoration Network

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Ben Minor, Children’s Restoration Network

Ben Minor is the Development Director at Children’s Restoration Network, a nonprofit organization that provides supportive services to help homeless children and homeless mothers across 20 Metro-Atlanta counties each year.

Ben has been working with Children’s Restoration Network for the past seven years, where he helps to manage some of the organization’s fundraising efforts as well as several of their educational programs, so he joined us on Pro Advocate Radio to share about CRN and the work they’re doing to help homeless kids be prepared for the start of the new school year.

Please visit the CRN website to learn more about upcoming events and campaigns to serve more of Georgia’s homeless children and single parents in need.

August 1st was “Stuff the Bus” day and WSB, Kroger and other businesses set up locations for us to drop off school bags and supplies. It was an incredible day of exciting community support and lots of smiles all around, especially when these kids received their new stuffed bags – so please check out the photos on the CRN or WSB Facebook pages!

Visit the website for more details on upcoming events and to learn how you can contribute now and on an ongoing basis to make a difference for the thousands of homeless children in our area.

We love this photo of WSB’s Sophia Choi stuffing the bus for Children’s Restoration Network, and what better way to engage talent in this mission than by featuring the work of legendary cartoonist Mike Luckovich!

The crew at WSB in Atlanta created a whirlwind of exciting news and social media posts, so please follow & share @WSBTV and @WSBradio

Please listen and share this broadcast with family, friends and across your social media networks!

Childrn.org | Twitter | Facebook | Linkedin | Instagram

Deb Beacham/My Advocate Center

Founder, Executive Director

My Advocate Center is building and offering solutions needed in each community, in each state in the U.S.A. and beyond. We are about improving family stability and seeing that the needs of children are met.

When families, especially single parents and children, become homeless it turns into a daily struggle to cover even their most basic needs so we are glad to feature Children’s Restoration Network and support their drive for school supplies, clothing and backpacks to help fill these voids for homeless children. As we grow and expand, we are engaging more organizations that work to prevent homelessness as well as to serve urgent and current needs in our communities.

Our work includes serving military and veteran families and children, as they often fall onto hard times during and after service, but our veterans are also a part of the solution. Positions are being created to put as many veterans and veteran family members to work as possible.

Our Professional Spotlight #onPAR serves the mission of uplifting families and children who are caught in conflict, whether it is before the breakup of a relationship, during divorce or child custody disputes, or after a legal battle when recovery and peace are needed.

Bold moves are being made to help parents understand how to better transition through & out of conflict, meaning we help reduce stress for children, and preserve family time & resources for their benefit.

Professionals who are like-minded are encouraged to connect and become a part of our Resource Directory. Please visit the Counsel for Change group page here on LinkedIn to learn more about our discussions. Our advisory panel reviews professionals to ensure certain standards are met. If you are focused on upholding ethics rules, professional duty, and are committed to helping children receive the best that both parents have to offer, let us know.

Our investigations, initiatives & strategies are also well suited to supporting government agencies in making necessary improvements to programs & services. It is important that these changes are made to better serve parents & children; but it is also possible to yield a positive economic return for each community & state.

MAC’s purpose in contributing to agencies & other organizations is to improve the divorce/child custody process in a way that leaves our communities stronger & better able to support the needs of children. We now have opportunities to lessen the impact of family violence, addiction & other dysfunction, while putting our financial resources to better use.

Connect | Inform | Empower

When it comes to guiding public policy to improve the process, and to helping parents navigate through high-conflict custody cases, no other collection of experts and resources is better positioned to give you clear and actionable insight.

MyAdvocateCenter.com | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | Linkedin (Deb) @DebBeachamATL

Joe Skopitz with Centennial Olympic Park, Maureen Kornowa with Gwinnett Children’s Shelter and Vanessa Anderson with Covenant Christian Ministries Academy

January 28, 2015 by Mike

Silver Lining in the Cloud

Joe Skopitz with Centennial Olympic Park, Maureen Kornowa with Gwinnett Children's Shelter and Vanessa Anderson with Covenant Christian Ministries Academy

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Joe Skopitz, Maureen Kornowa, Vanessa Anderson, Dom Rainey

Joe Skopitz/Centennial Olympic Park

Less than two decades ago, Centennial Olympic Park’s neighborhood was a run-down part of town. That all began to change on the day Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games CEO Billy Payne gazed out his office window and a brilliant inspiration came to him – to convert a multi-block eyesore into a glorious gathering spot for visitors and residents to enjoy during the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games and for years to come. Tremendous support, coupled with the willingness of the State of Georgia to take the lead in the Park’s development and to assume ownership after the Games, transformed a dream into a grand reality – Centennial Olympic Park.

Following the Olympic Games, a large portion of the park was closed and redesigned for daily public use. Today, this unique 21-acre park performs a dual mission: it serves as Georgia’s lasting legacy of the Centennial Olympic Games and it anchors efforts to revitalize residential and commercial development in Georgia’s capital city. The Park sponsors community-wide free events including the Fourth of July Celebration, Music@Noon, the Wednesday WindDown concert series, and Park Market. The Park also hosts festivals, fundraisers and private events. These events, in addition to the normal day-to-day traffic, bring an estimated three million visitors to this urban oasis each year.

Maureen Kornowa/Gwinnett Children’s Shelter

The Gwinnett Children’s Shelter has been serving their community for more than 27 years. This past year GCS has embarked on a new journey with a program called “The Next Step…” where they now help homeless children of all ages along with their young moms. They are also looking to assist young girls who “age out” of the foster care system and those young women who have served in the Armed Forces who find themselves in a homeless situation with children. Their new idea is fresh and unique in that it is designed to keep the family together, determine the cause of the homelessness, and set each guest on a path to sustainability. For more information on “The Next Step…” visit gwinnettchildrenshelter.org.

Vanessa Anderson/Covenant Christian Ministries Academy

Covenant Christian Ministries Academy, a ministry of Covenant Christian Ministries Church, is a fully accredited school (ACSI and SACS CASI) established in 1994 which provides educational services to students both foreign (SEVIS approved) and domestic. Excellent learning opportunities are available at CCMA! Class sizes are moderate to allow individual needs to be addressed. Their academic training, which includes advanced placement and honor’s classes, has produced notable achievements. Student accomplishments include: Zell Miller scholarship recipients, perfect scores on advanced placement exams, and national winners in history, spelling, geography and math, and participants in the People to People Ambassador Program to Harvard in Cambridge, MA.

All students, K5 – 12, are required to take Spanish each year with the goal of developing spoken and auditory proficiency. Latin instruction begins in 3rd grade for their elementary students providing them with additional tools to decipher new vocabulary as formal phonics instruction ends.

Various activities are available to students in addition to the academic rigor – basketball, volleyball, cheerleading, chorus, yearbook, spelling bee, and more. Their basketball program produces true student-athletes with several recruited to NCAA Division I colleges.