- Join the Essentials Drive!
- 2nd Annual Hope & Homes Virtual 5K
- Care Days & CareKits for Metro Atlanta
- Construction Update
- HomeAid Atlanta Donors
- How to Get Involved
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This spring, HomeAid Atlanta has two great ways to get your team together to help families and individuals experiencing or at risk of homelessness. Along with your coworkers, church, neighborhood association, school, or any club or group you're a part of, you can join these two events for team building fun and help build a future without homelessness!
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HomeAid Atlanta's Essentials Drive takes place from April 1 to May 4, 2022 in honor of Mother's Day. The Essentials Drive is HomeAid’s annual drive to collect diapers and baby wipes for families with infants and toddlers experiencing or at risk of homelessness. An estimated 5,500 people in metro Atlanta experience homelessness on any given night and almost 50% are women and children. The Essentials Drive has collected over 1.7 million essential baby items, assisting hundreds of moms and babies since 2002.
You can help!
Click the button to learn how your team can host an office-wide diaper drive or find a drop-off site for your donations.
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Walk, run, or jog to raise awareness and funds for HomeAid Atlanta's mission to help people experiencing or at risk of homelessness build new lives through construction, community engagement, and education. The Hope & Homes Virtual 5K will run from May 15 to May 30: participants will have two weeks to submit their time. You can complete the race along any route that equals 5K (3.1 miles), recording and submitting your time using the It's Your Race mobile app. Your race time is automatically uploaded to our leaderboard for the chance to win prizes.
Get your friends and colleagues together and go the distance to build new lives!
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Get inspired! Watch these videos for a flashback to the 2021 Essentials Drive and the 1st Annual Hope & Homes Virtual 5K! |
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Care Day at SafeHouse Outreach |
On February 26, volunteers from Vincent Longo Custom Builders and Whitefield Academy, along with several community members, painted a portion of SafeHouse Outreach that houses out-of-town groups providing assistance with work-based projects and relational ministry projects. Sherwin-Williams donated all of the paint for the project. The paint donation and the hard work of volunteers provided a savings of nearly $4,000 for SafeHouse!
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Care Day with Overhead Door Company of Atlanta |
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CareKits with BOMA Georgia |
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On March 1, volunteers from BOMA Georgia, The Building Owners and Managers Association of Georgia, partnered with us to pack 500 HomeAid CareKits for people experiencing homelessness. Each HomeAid CareKit includes items like snacks and water, hand sanitizer, deodorant, a comb, toothbrush and toothpaste, bandages, tissues, and more. CareKits help meet immediate hunger and hygiene needs for someone struggling with homelessness.
The 500 CareKits were donated to The Elizabeth Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of homeless individuals who live on the streets, in encampments, under bridges, and in the abandoned buildings of Atlanta.
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Who HomeAid Helps
Tracy Thompson struggled with homelessness, addiction, and abuse before turning her life around. She established the Elizabeth Foundation in 2018. The Elizabeth Foundation works to build relationships with people experiencing homelessness, striving to help them toward a path to rehabilitation for addiction, and help with mental illness and physical impairments. Every Sunday afternoon, they provide food and clothing in areas known to have a homeless population. Individuals can also receive help with housing resources, hygiene supplies, hotel stays, MARTA cards, job placement, payment for medications, and more.
Having experienced life from the perspective of those she serves, Tracy is uniquely qualified to build connections with people who are in fragile living situations. Tracy empathizes with them in ways many others cannot. Not only does this allow her to recognize the value of things as simple as a clean pair of socks, it also promotes a level of trust. This trust is essential when someone is ready to seek treatment, and to find their own way out of homelessness.
This short film gives detailed insight into the work of the Elizabeth Foundation. You will meet Tracy and the people The Elizabeth Foundation serves, see their living conditions, and experience their struggles.
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Sherwin-Williams donated 50 gallons of exterior paint for our project at Gateway Domestic Violence Center. |
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Brand Vaughan Lumber employees inside newly framed Gigi's House earlier this month. |
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Overhead Door Company of Atlanta at work at Ascensa Health Women’s Residence on March 12.
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We are nearing the drywall phase at our new ten-bedroom home at Gigi's House in Clayton County, which serves girls ages 13-19 who are victims of sex trafficking, providing a safe home in a faith-based, loving environment. We just received a permit for our second project on the Gigi’s House campus to create an administrative building. Led by Meritage Homes, this building will provide space for trauma-informed therapy, home school, mentoring, life skills, and more.
We are nearing the drywall phase on our new building at Gateway Domestic Violence Shelter, adding 55 beds for women fleeing domestic violence, plus rooms for support groups, a dining room, offices, laundry, kitchen, overnight staff bedroom, storage, computer lab, quiet common rooms, lobby, and playroom. This project is expected to wrap up in late spring. Design2Sell is donating services and furniture items to help decorate a Teen Counseling Room and a family lobby/living space.
HomeAid Atlanta’s renovation project for Ascensa Women’s Residence kicked off on March 12 with a Care Day to complete demolition with volunteers from Overhead Door Company of Atlanta. The project will provide much needed updates to the kitchen and bathrooms, as well as a new laundry space, and general improvements throughout. When complete, the house will be home to 8 to 10 women working to rebuild their lives after overcoming addiction. This project would not be possible without the architects at BLUR Workshop and Builder Captain Bradley Hall of Hall Design Build.
We recently received an application for a project in Decatur, so if you are a builder working in that area, please consider serving as a HomeAid Builder Captain for this new project. Contact HomeAid Atlanta Executive Director Mandy Crater for more details: 678.775.1401 or mandy@homeaidatlanta.org.
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Thank You, HomeAid Donors! |
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Donor Highlights
On March 3, Sherry Gasaway, 2022 Atlanta SMC (Atlanta Sales and Marketing Council) Chair, presented HomeAid Atlanta Executive Director Mandy Crater (photo, left) with a check for $12,000, proceeds from the 2021 Atlanta SMC Silent Auction.
Meritage Homes and Ashton Woods donated furniture and accessories via our Stock the House Drive this month. These items were provided to Making A Way Housing, Inc. and will provide a warm and comfortable environment for residents as they rebuild their lives. Making A Way Housing provides safe, emergency, transitional and affordable housing to individuals who are homeless, recovering from substance abuse, living with HIV/AIDS, and mental illness.
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2022 HomeAid Atlanta Giving Partners |
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Get Involved with HomeAid Atlanta |
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GAHBA Events Support HomeAid Atlanta
When you register for a Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association (GAHBA) meeting or event, you will have an opportunity to make a 100% tax-deductible donation to HomeAid Atlanta. Just look for the green banner when completing online event registration. Check out the GAHBA's upcoming events.
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You're receiving this email because you have expressed an interest in HomeAid Atlanta or are associated with the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association. Remember to add info@homeaidatlanta.org to your address book so we'll be sure to land in your inbox!
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