Homelessness Archives - Page 2 of 3

Dr. Courthney Russell, Jr., A2H2

June 13, 2022 by John Ray

North Fulton Business Radio

Dr. Courthney Russell, Jr., A2H2

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North Fulton Business Radio, Episode 465)

Dr. Russell of A2H2 joined host John Ray on this edition of North Fulton Business Radio to discuss his organization’s work on behalf of the health needs of underserved communities.

North Fulton Business Radio is broadcast from the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® inside Renasant Bank in Alpharetta.

The mission of A2H2 is to provide quality healthcare and wellness services to the marginalized, indigent, and those experiencing poverty.

Today medicine and healthcare are revenue-based. A2H2 holds the fundamental belief that saving lives should be a priority. The medical attention and wellness services given to the indigent should mirror the care received by the affluent. A2H2 believes wholeheartedly that without quality consistent healthcare, poverty will forever be perpetuated. Finances should never be an obstacle for someone without the means to pay.

This organization will be the catalyst for changing healthcare by increasing access to quality healthcare through consistency and raising awareness.

Company Website | Facebook | Instagram

Born in Fort Knox, KY, and raised in East Atlanta, Dr. Courthney Russel Jr. was the first in his family to go to med school with little assistance. Due to this, he went through school homeless and interacted with the homeless community in Atlanta.

His first-hand experience motivated him to make it his mission to serve the forgotten members of our society by providing free health services to the Atlanta community.

Questions and Topics in this Interview:

How did going through medical school while homeless affect you?
What is the mission of A2H2?
How has your life experience affected how you run A2H2?
What has been the most rewarding experience you have had with A2H2?
The importance of visibility for patients to receive proper care.
What inspired you to turn your back on becoming a surgeon to create A2H2?
What do you think stops traditional healthcare from effectively reaching those in need?
How do you see the future of healthcare changing?

North Fulton Business Radio is hosted by John Ray and broadcast and produced from the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® inside Renasant Bank 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, Amazon, 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.

Special thanks to A&S Culinary Concepts for their support of this edition of North Fulton Business Radio. A&S Culinary Concepts, based in Johns Creek, is an award-winning culinary studio, celebrated for corporate catering, corporate team building, Big Green Egg Boot Camps, and private group events. They also provide oven-ready, cooked from scratch meals to go they call “Let Us Cook for You.” To see their menus and events, go to their website or call 678-336-9196.

DRIVEN BY SUBARU: Highlighting Rainbow Village

June 23, 2021 by Garrett Ervin

Gwinnett Business Radio

DRIVEN BY SUBARU: Highlighting Rainbow Village

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Justice French/Rainbow Village

The mission of Rainbow Village is to transform the lives of homeless families with children by providing a stable community and services that instill initiative, self-development, and accountability for future generations. Rainbow Village has realized for over 29 years that it is this holistic approach to serving all family members in a safe community that allows their residents to truly break generational cycles of poverty, homelessness, and domestic violence. As their mission is fulfilled, they work towards their vision to be a national model of an educational and holistic approach to breaking the cycles of homelessness, poverty, and domestic violence.

About Subaru of Gwinnett

Satisfy your Subaru urge by visiting Subaru of Gwinnett, proudly serving drivers from Duluth, Atlanta, Johns Creek and Sandy Springs, GA. Whether it’s a brand new car or a gently used Subaru, their skilled auto enthusiasts at Subaru of Gwinnett will do everything they can to help you find the vehicle that you’re looking for.

The dealership has built a reputation on providing courteous, honest service. Their customers appreciate the way they do business, and Subaru of Gwinnett believes their customers are the most important part of their business. Subaru of Gwinnett maintains the highest level of integrity and professionalism in every area of their business, striving to provide stellar service and satisfy their customers 100% of the time.

The new 3-row 2021 Subaru Ascent has arrived, so stop by for a test drive today! If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to call them at (678) 475-3500.

Shelters to Shutters and Preface

March 11, 2021 by Garrett Ervin

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 Garrett Ervin

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.

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 Garrett Ervin

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 Garrett Ervin

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.