Many Blessings,
The Emmaus House Staff
Thanks to you, our Thanksgiving Turkeys for Families program will distribute the ingredients for a complete Thanksgiving Day Feast to 350 families so they can prepare their own home cooked family meals.
Even though we reached our Turkeys for Families fundraising goal, we are still accepting donations through Thanksgiving day, November 28th. Many people in Peoplestown need nutritious food. Whatever we receive will go towards providing food to those who need it this holiday season. If you would still like to contribute, please do so via our crowdfund page. Thank you.
If you would like to contribute your time and energy in other ways this holiday season, please contact us. We are coordinating several holiday programs about which you can learn more here.
I love this time of year. For many of us, the stretch between Thanksgiving and the New Year is full of celebration, food, family, and friends. Even in the “helping” field, we often see a decline in familial conflicts as folks suspend their grievances with one another in the spirit of the season. For many, it truly is the most wonderful time of the year.
In Peoplestown, Emmaus House plays a significant role in ushering in the holiday season. For the 350 families who will participate in our Thanksgiving at Home program, it will be a great beginning to the season. They will have all the ingredients for a traditional Thanksgiving feast, thanks to those who donated through our Thanksgiving Turkeys for Families campaign. This was our first attempt at crowd-funding and it was a great success. We exceeded our goal of $3,000 ($3,125 at last count), and over half of those who donated did so for the first time. Thank you to each person who participated for your generosity!
Once the Thanksgiving celebration ends and the holiday shopping season begins, we enter a season of stress and pressure for the parents of many of our Peoplestown families. With many parents already struggling to make ends meet, the expectation of providing another holiday meal and gifts for their children is often difficult to meet. To this end, Emmaus House invites you to bring a little comfort and joy to a family by forming a Christmas Family Partnership.
Individuals, families, and groups may partner with a Peoplestown family to provide gifts and household supplies to help ease the pressure on parents. Emmaus House will supply a list of needs to facilitate your shopping (including household needs, clothing, and gifts). Family Partners should expect to spend between $75 and $150 per person in the family.
Please contact Ann Fowler at annfowler@emmaushouse.org for more information. She will pair you with a family and provide a list of suggested gifts based on family composition and needs. Gifts should be delivered to Emmaus House by December 21.
Your generosity will bring comfort and joy to a family in need this Christmas. Thank you for spreading cheer and goodwill to our neighbors in Peoplestown this holiday season and all year round.
Grace and peace,
Joseph Mole, LMSW
Executive Director
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Having garnered a huge success with our Thanksgiving Turkeys for Families (thank you all!), we swiftly turn our attention to encouraging the continued outpouring of generosity by participating in tomorrow's Georgia Gives Day.
Georgia Gives Day is a focused 24 hours of "flash mob giving". It may not sound as exciting as finding yourself dancing in the streets in a spontaneous flash mob celebration, but the payback is just as uplifting and the results are truly far reaching and worth celebrating! To read more see The Daily Tribune article by Marie Nesmith here: The Daily Tribune News - Georgia Gives Day highlights nonprofits.
The Georgia Center for Nonprofits has built a collaboration of partnerships with nonprofits, state agencies, businesses, foundations, and associations. The GCN is a one-stop clearinghouse for change. There, you can find multiple areas of concern to which you can donate both time and resources. GCN's vision statement from their website reads: "GCN’s vision is to build the country’s highest performing state-focused resource center, and to position Georgia as a national model for nonprofit excellence and achievement. GCN is on a journey inspired by our belief that nonprofits are essential components of a healthy democracy and thriving communities, and by our conviction that strong nonprofits working together can achieve anything they desire." See more here.Please visit them and get involved!
Emmaus House is honored to be a partner and supports the work of GCN. As an organization that has been fighting for social and economic justice in Atlanta since 1967, we recognize that being part of a coalition exponentially increases the synergy of our efforts. The democratic process of improving the lives of all people is a continuing campaign and an uphill battle.
Towards that goal of equality for all, Emmaus House Atlanta Executive Director, Joseph Mole, recently began a 10 month collaboration with eleven other nonprofit leaders through the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Atlanta Leaders for Results initiative. The purpose is to find real solutions to a very specific question: How will we turn the curve for children and families in our own communities through our own offerings? In other words, how will our programs create tangible results in changing the trajectory of lives? How can we create curriculums that move others' beyond poverty and help individuals and families realize their personal aspirations? Here at Emmaus House, in addition to our relief efforts, we work hard to grow such initiatives, both established and on the drawing board. We are keenly passionate in offering strategies that develop actual skill sets that allow individuals, through their own efforts, to end personal poverty. Partnering with various other agencies and groups will contribute vastly to creating positive tangible outcomes in the lives of those within our community of Peoplestown.
Donating through the GCN’s Georgia Gives Day is an excellent and efficient way to deliver resources to the groups and issues all of us are passionate about supporting. A search function on the Georgia Gives site will assist you in finding participating groups you wish to support. Search on the Georgia Gives Day website or visit the Emmaus House Atlanta page here.
In closing, the potentially larger and certainly more immediate effect of donating through Georgia Gives Day is the awareness raising and concerted efforts that it fosters. Those efforts and the subsequent consciousness raising will help transform our society towards justice and equity for all. Thank you all for all you do.
November 10th Update: Thanksgiving at Home Program Crowdfund Campaign
At 102% funded and with 18 days left in our Thanksgiving Turkeys for Families campaign, we feel so grateful for the outpouring of love and generosity! We can’t express fully our thanks in mere words. To all who have contributed in dollars, energy and caring please know that beyond the nutritional benefits of this effort lies the hope and dignity that your generosity inspires in the lives and hearts of the families blessed by your love offerings. Here at Emmaus House we know that receiving thanks for our efforts is inherent in the giving... to give is to receive. The generosity of loving hearts makes this realization possible. It is one thing to feel satisfaction from one's efforts at reaching a goal. But it’s overwhelming when that goal is inspired by the love, selflessness, and generosity of so many people.
Thanks to you, our Thanksgiving Turkeys for Families program will distribute the ingredients for a complete Thanksgiving Day Feast to 350 families so they can prepare their own home cooked family meals. Thank you, everyone, so much! A happy Thanksgiving to one and all!
Even though we have reached our goal, we will still accept donations. Many people in Peoplestown need nutritious food. Whatever we receive will go towards providing food to those who need it this holiday season. If you would still like to contribute, please do so at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/thanksgiving-turkeys-for-families. Thank you.
If you would like to contribute directly with canned goods or your time and energy contact Ann Fowler at annfowler@emmaushouse.org or 404-523-2856 ext. 25.
If you would like to contribute your time and energy in other ways this holiday season, please contact us. We are coordinating several holiday programs about which you can learn more at http://www.emmaushouseatlanta.org/volunteer/
‘Tis the season... to receive through our giving.
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On Monday, despite unseasonably cold weather, 225 families lined up to receive their vouchers for a turkey and all the fixings to make a Thanksgiving dinner at home. The remaining 125 vouchers will go to other residents who could not make it on Monday, including at least fifty seniors. After the line had slowed, Ann Fowler, who manages the program, said, “Everyone deserves to have special moments in their lives. Thanksgiving symbolizes family and it’s a wonderful way to kick off the holiday season for those struggling to put food on the table.”
Jerrica has been a resident of Peoplestown for 17 years. Jerrica has three adult children, all of whom have jobs, and she regularly receives groceries from the food pantry. This will be her second year as a participant in the Thanksgiving at Home program at Emmaus House.
Jerrica: It means a lot. They help us for real in so many ways nobody would even imagine.
They put a smile on my face. I’m so happy that we have this in our community. People come together around Emmaus House.
Love abounds. And because of everyone's love-inspired generosity, so do turkeys!
We are pleased to announce, with heartfelt gratitude to everyone who has contributed to our Thanksgiving At Home Fundraiser, that as of today, we are 77 percent funded in our goal of providing Thanksgiving meals for over 350 families in the Peoplestown community!
Please don't think, "Oh great! All is well. They'll reach their goal, I need not bother." We still have a ways to go. A mere $10 means a family celebrates their lives together in their own home around a Thanksgiving Day feast. And don’t forget the leftovers they’ll get to enjoy - what’s better than Thanksgiving leftovers?
So, if you haven't contributed, please help us quickly reach our goal. And please urge just one friend or family member to do the same... let's get these birds 'in hand' and share our bounty with many less fortunate than ourselves.
Our fundraiser is coordinated through IndieGoGo. You can visit our campaign page here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/thanksgiving-turkeys-for-families
Please note that your receipt will say that the donation went to “The Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta.” However, please be assured that 100% of your contribution will come to Emmaus House to purchase Thanksgiving turkeys.
There you can find out more about our Thanksgiving At Home Program, as well as Emmaus House’s general mission and the Peoplestown community that we serve. Please visit our campaign site to discover how you can spread a little love this holiday season.
Lastly, a huge thank you to all who have already contributed to the campaign. And a huge shout out to the staff and volunteers who are lovingly making this effort happen. Blessings to all.
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Perhaps the single most crucial issue facing uninsured citizens and voters in Georgia this November is Medicaid Expansion. This issue has significant implications for the individuals and families who come to the Lokey Center at Emmaus House every day for help with medical bills, prescriptions, and co-pays.
Medicaid expansion in Georgia would qualify our state for a 100% federal match of funding for three years, and a 90% federal match thereafter. This translates to $40 billion our state could receive in the span of just ten years, with a staggering 650,000 currently uninsured Georgians obtaining medical coverage.
Not insuring those who cannot afford the high costs of healthcare ultimately affects everyone. Neglecting any one portion of the community affects the health of the whole through unseen and unintended repercussions. Emory and Morehouse medical schools estimate that 10 Georgians are dying preventable deaths each day due to lack of access to healthcare. With the expansion of Medicaid, we could save up to 3,600 lives per year!
Medicaid expansion not only alleviates suffering and saves lives. It also provides health outcomes that create personal economic independence. Healthy individuals are able to remain gainfully employed rather than slip into chronic illness, unemployment, and poverty. Chronically ill populations create an enormous burden on local and state government health, support, and administrative services that must be garnered from local and state taxes. On the other hand, healthy populations contribute to the economic health of a region.
In addition, expanding Medicaid would contribute to job creation of an estimated 56,000 jobs in Georgia, which increases the tax base. An expanded tax base funds improvements such as education, employment, urban redevelopment, and public transit that benefit everyone. An expanded tax base also contributes to finding solutions to other social justice issues such as crime (yes, it is a social justice issue), nutrition, housing and homelessness. If not addressed, these issues combine and reverberate throughout the social order to compound as negative effects that contribute to ever-increasing poverty and crime within and upon the larger communities of city and state. Denying health care for a few, by rejecting Medicaid expansion being offered through the Affordable Care Act, reduces quality of life and increases overall total economic costs thereby reducing quality of life for everyone in the region. The myriad sector services that are required to respond to the combined effects of illness, poverty, and crime will far outstrip the costs of providing healthcare to those who would qualify under Medicaid Expansion in our state.
The AJC reports that 57% of Georgians support the expansion of Medicaid. That leaves a significant percentage of folks who do not. As individuals, we can suffer from tunnel vision that blinds us to the big picture. We tend to respond to things that only directly affect us. However, when we expand our thinking beyond our own daily lives, we see that the welfare of others is, in reality, our own. Each of us is a part of the larger whole. No one lives in isolation. We all affect each other's welfare. Will you keep this perspective in mind as you enter the ballot box on Tuesday? Be wise, and vote!
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Many are discouraged from voting in an 'off year election'. But the term is disparagingly misleading. The so-called ‘off year’ or non-presidential election cycle is tremendously important at the local and state levels. It is the opportunity to affect grassroots changes at home; the time to hold local, state & federal representatives accountable. In addition, it is a time to voice one's opinion on important ballot issues that directly affect our daily lives. As Jay Bookman, award-winning journalist, political columnist and blogger for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution put it, "Here in Georgia, if black Georgians voted in larger numbers, they might not have a government that refuses Medicaid expansion for hundreds of thousands of lower-income working people... they might not have a Legislature that recoils so instinctively from mass transit and other perceived “urban” amenities."
NAACP President and CEO Cornell William Brooks put it this way, “Voting is not a social luxury, it is our civic responsibility." In truth, voting is an action of responsibility to ourselves and our loved ones.
Black voter turnout six years ago was nearly 70%; but election analysts mainly attribute this to Barack Obama’s name on the ballot. According to United States census data, over 66% of registered Black voters went to the polls for the November 2012 election. That’s 2% higher than registered White voters, and nearly 6% higher than U.S. voters overall.
Source: Wikipedia
African Americans, along with unmarried women, youth voters and other voters of color also make up a rising population of eligible voters, according to a 2013 Voter Participation Center report. Together, this group makes up more than half of the eligible U.S. voting population. And yet, statistics show that in “off year elections” African Americans still don’t turn out to vote in proportion to the rest of eligible voters.
Clearly, some of the causes can be attributed to access - restrictions imposed by social and economic factors. While Emmaus House of Atlanta does not advocate nor endorse any political party or persuasion we do advocate engagement in the political process. We encourage self-empowerment by encouraging voting participation through sponsoring voter registration and turnout by partnering with social justice and political educational groups such as The Georgia Justice Project.
Here are a few reasons why everyone who is interested in social and economic justice, including our neighbors in Peoplestown should vote:
We can't afford to lose the hard won gains nor dishonor the lives of so many who have given their blood, sweat, tears and some their very lives for us, the beneficiaries of their struggles for social justice. We as individuals and a people, no matter our ethnicity, cannot afford to relinquish the hard won rights of the Labor Movement in the early 20th century or the Civil Rights Movement of the 60’s. We must ask ourselves: how can we honor the personal sacrifices of Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. here in America during the 1960’s, and of Mahatma Gandhi in India in the 1940’s who was a model for Dr. King? We must continue to claim their victories. We must keep Dr. King's dream alive. We must make our voices heard. We must vote. As Gandhi enjoined, "Be the change you want to see in the world."
Statistically this was most evident proven in the 2008 & 2012 presidential elections. This should be our rallying cry to continue turning out in all elections, especially so at the all important local and state levels. Without a concerted voice, politicians won't address the needs of whole populations.
Issues such as unemployment, housing, education and health could worsen if voters don’t express their needs to elected officials. If voters don't demand changes, their needs most likely won’t be addressed.
Many subscribe to the ‘I don’t feel like my vote counts’ school of thought and won’t vote in any election. African Americans need to vote and show that their vote is important. If we don't vote, we're sending the message that we don't count. A major way to express political will is through voting. As well, we need to ensure that politicians take our votes very seriously by showing up en masse. We need to hold our elected officials accountable by voting out those who are unresponsive to the needs of everyone.
We urge everyone in our neighborhood, and across the state, to vote at next Tuesday’s election. Let our voices be heard.
Listed below is the closest voting precinct to Peoplestown. But each registered voter is assigned a polling place, so please refer to you voter information card. If you you are unsure of your polling location, you can visit www.fultonelections.com or call 404-612-7020. Election Day - November 4th
Atlanta South Side Health Center
1046 Ridge Avenue SW
Atlanta, GA 30315
Polls to open at 7:00 am on Tuesday, November 4th
On Tuesday, November 4, 2014, all 370 precincts in Fulton County will open to welcome voters. The Fulton County Department of Registration and Elections is confident that pre-election preparations will result in an easy and pleasant voting experience for all electors. As always, administrative and technical support is available in the field and at the Election phone bank to address questions that may arise.
Voters who plan to vote in person on November 4th should keep the following points in mind:
If a voter does not have one of these forms of photo identification, they can obtain a FREE Voter ID card at their County Registrars’ office or the Georgia Department of Driver’s Services.
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One-sixth of Americans don't have enough food to eat. According to Feeding America’s Hunger in America 2014 report, 1 in 7.5 people, or an estimated 755,400 people in metro Atlanta and north Georgia turn to food pantries and meal service programs to feed themselves and their families each year. This includes more than 164,000 children and more than 64,000 seniors.
The causes of hunger in the land of plenty can be summed up in one word: access. In a nation of unprecedented abundance, there is no actual shortage of food and nutrition assistance programs, both charitable and governmental. Rather, it is simple access to nutrition that is a growing problem fueled by increasing pressures throughout the economic system. These pressures create both socio-economic and physical barriers to access to food. The effects of chronic poverty amplify educational and physical obstacles to nutrition. These hurdles can be as simple as limited transportation to grocers and markets and as complex as lack of knowledge of how to negotiate food assistance programs and resources.
At Emmaus House, we focus our efforts at the local level to provide solutions and relief to both types of access obstacles. Emmaus House, located in Peoplestown at 1017 Hank Aaron Drive SW, serves the residents of the Peoplestown neighborhood in downtown Atlanta through programs that help residents attain higher levels of economic security, education, and personal development, as well as programs that alleviate hunger. Addressing the immediate issue of hunger, Emmaus House issues referrals to area agencies that run food pantries, and even operates its own food pantry on Friday mornings for residents in the 30315 zip code. In addition, it assists families and individuals in the application and renewal eligibility for Food Stamps (SNAP), Medicaid, and other government benefits. Emmaus House offers a community supper on the third Thursday of each month, and annually sponsors a Thanksgiving meal program.
Thanksgiving, the nation's big meal, is only about a month away. It is our time to give thanks for the bounty that Americans have traditionally enjoyed. However, Atlanta is no exception to the rise of hunger across the nation. Many Atlantans don't know where their next meal will come from much less give thought to enjoying the traditional family Thanksgiving Feast. Emmaus House's efforts in alleviating hunger pains for well over four decades include sharing the bounty of our nation's traditional feast of thanks through a Thanksgiving at Home Program for our neighbors in Peoplestown. We provide 350 households with turkeys and 'fixings' so that they may have a Thanksgiving meal to prepare and enjoy at home.
We need loving donations to buy turkeys (Visit our Turkeys for Families Fundraiser Here) and bags filled with ingredients to make Thanksgiving side dishes. Please deliver bags of sides to Emmaus House between Nov 17 and 21. (For grocery lists and more details, click here.)
Your generosity and love are rewards in themselves.
Help us at Emmaus House to put some holiday cheer in the lives of our fellow Atlantans who are less fortunate than we are. Thank you!
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