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The feature below is brought to you by Habitat for Humanity - North Central Georgia, an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about our giving initiatives, please click here. To learn more about the featured organization, please visit their website here.  Habitat-NCG is a 501(c)3 housing ministry, and is an independently run and operated affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International, building affordable permanent housing and providing essential homeowner sustainability education for families in the metro-Atlanta community. Habitat-NCG and the Housing Inequality Crisis: At Habitat-NCG we not only see the beauty in all genders, races, and communities, but we also see the blatant affordable housing gap that affects low income households. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, there are only 37 affordable homes for every 100 low income households in the United States. In Georgia, there is a shortage of 193,726 affordable homes. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, stable housing has a direct impact on one’s mental health. Permanent housing is also the first stepping stone to breaking cycles of homelessness, involvement in the criminal justice system, and hospitalizations. Habitat-NCG sees the beauty in communities that have been overlooked and neglected, and we believe that by providing marginalized communities with stable housing, we can help others on their journey to see the beauty in themselves. Habitat-NCG is taking direct action to close the affordable housing gap in North Central Georgia by building homes for marginalized people and empowering them with the tools they need for homeownership. Habitat homes are not a temporary housing solution, they are permanent housing with mortgages that are affordable for the families. Families are not only securing stable housing, they are moving into ownership of an asset that will allow them to find stability both physically and financially. Habitat homeowners are equipped with homeowner classes, providing them with the tools they need to maintain their house and financial stability. Habitat-NCG does not just give a house to someone, instead, we work with the families long-term, empowering them to maintain self-sufficiency. Habitat-NCG Families: The struggle for stable homeownership is often caused by a significant change outside of someone’s control. Read this first hand experience of the Williams Family that was housed in 2019: Lori Ann is a proud mother of two daughters Hannah and Asia. When Asia was born with a rare chromosome deletion that affects her speech and impairs her mental and physical functions Lori had to make a job change and accept a lower paying job in order to be available to address frequent medical emergencies Asia faces. At the time, the family rented a split-level home in Forsyth County. The layout of the home required Lori Ann and Havannah to lift and carry Asia much of the time. There was an obvious need for a wheelchair accessible home so that Asia could become more independent. Habitat-NCG and its sponsors were able to properly design and build a house specifically for this family to move into and own in 2019. Another unfortunately familiar story is that of single parents fleeing domestic abuse. 35.1% of Georgia women and 39.9% of Georgia men experience intimate partner physical violence, sexual violence and/or stalking. The Francis family is one of those families, and Habitat-NCG had the opportunity to provide housing stability during an otherwise chaotic time. In 2013, Rachel* sought the assistance of a local non-profit organization to help her leave a marriage that became unsafe. In 2014, her youngest son was born which left her raising her three children on her own. To add more comfort barriers, the Francis family lives in a two bed one bath apartment that lacks central heating and air making utility bills on the verge of being unaffordable and the home cramped for a family of their size. In 2018 the Francis family was accepted into the Habitat-NCG program and is now on their way to having a more safe, comfortable, and fulfilling life. Habitat-NCG Is For Everyone: Habitat-NCG sees the beauty in the community around us, but also acknowledges and is driven to help those who are marginalized see the beauty in themselves through empowered and affordable homeownership. Affordable and safe housing is a powerful form of equity and inclusivity - allowing a stable platform of housing for those who are in a frequently forgotten community to not only be taken care of, but also feel safe enough to speak up for those around them so that others may be given shelter. Owning a home and having safe, affordable housing is empowering, and Habitat-NCG is proud to give that power to people who need it most. Submitted by: Sabrina Kirkland
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The feature below is brought to you by Designed For Joy, an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about our giving initiatives, please click here. To learn more about the featured organization, please visit their website here.  That homeless woman on the corner with a cardboard sign? We see beautiful. That woman who was just released from prison with a broken background? We see beautiful. That single mom with four kids trying to survive poverty? We see beautiful. That woman deciding everyday to stay sober after years of addiction? We see beautiful. That young woman that escaped sex trafficking? We see beautiful. That refugee who just arrived in a new culture and doesn’t speak the language? We see beautiful. This is where we see beautiful. We see it in the eyes of women trying to survive. This is why we started Designed For Joy. CREATING A PATH We are creating a path for these vulnerable women to move forward and gain independence again. Designed For Joy provides second chance employment to women in our community who need a safe and dignified job. We partner with other organizations, such as rehab centers and homeless shelters, that are supporting these women and we provide the vocational component to their life situation. Many of these women cannot get any other job due to factors such as criminal history, mental health, drug rehab programs, or lack of ability to speak English. LIVING WAGE EMPLOYMENT We aim to lead the conversation of living wage work in our community. We pay a living wage of $15/hr, to provide women with a solid paycheck. During their time with us, the women learn to create beautiful products such as purses, jewelry, and charcuterie boards. Our goal is to build their confidence, provide them with training and skills, refresh their resume, provide a solid letter of reference, and, ultimately, launch them into full time work. EVERYONE IS WELCOME AT OUR TABLE Designed For Joy believes in diversity and inclusion. We welcome all women regardless of race, background, gender identity, or religion. 100% of our clients live below the poverty line. The women in our program represent the diversity in our world. We serve women who are coming out of situations such as sex trafficking, generational poverty, homelessness, rehabilitation, prison, and emergency situations. Our women range in age from 20-70. The majority of our clients are mothers, and most are single mothers. 68% are from under represented minority groups. Over half are homeless or living in a women's shelter. All are invited into a welcoming, safe work environment. We provide meals and a community sharing time to promote mental health, alongside their job training. SAFE PLACE Whether clients are living on the streets or in hostile situations, Designed For Joy offers them a safe working environment and a place for personal growth. Our studio is ideally located directly across the street from a homeless shelter that we partner with, and right beside the bus station, making it easier and safer for our women to get to work. One woman who recently escaped sex trafficking, was able to safely work in our studio while a pimp stood outside looking for her. We offer trauma and conflict management training to all of our clients, staff, and volunteers to promote a safe community. This year, we led a team of 25 volunteers through a “Year of Impact,” a mission targeted to increase awareness of social justice issues, focusing on Race Equality, Poverty, Prison Reentry, and Trafficking. TRIANGLE IMPACT PROJECT Wanting to serve even more women than our regular program could accommodate, we partnered with two area non profit groups, The Scrap Exchange in Durham and The Women's Center of Wake County, to establish a day work program called The Triangle Impact Project. These are stand-alone 3-day workshops that provide women who are experiencing homelessness an opportunity to work with us creating stylishly designed and sustainably handmade tote bags. They work with us during the day, earn a living wage, and receive immediate funds at the end of each work day. These funds are often used for emergency needs. One woman that was sleeping in a tent outside in the snow used her earned wages to sleep in a warm hotel. IMPACT Designed For Joy has hired over 63 women and we just reached the milestone of paying out over $100,000 in living wages!! We have a large volunteer base and we warmly invite you into our studio to see the good work God is doing and meet the women we are serving. Together we can impact the lives of the most vulnerable women in Raleigh. Submitted by: Kristen SydowThe feature below is brought to you by MUST Ministries, an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about our giving initiatives, please click here. To learn more about the featured organization, please visit their website here.  "Hunger is the meanest, ugliest monster you’ve ever seen" Beauty is reflected daily in the faces of thousands of MUST Ministries clients as our programs and services help move them from poverty to stability and self-sufficiency. MUST’s comprehensive services not only address immediate basic needs for food, shelter, healthcare, and clothing but also provide the resources and training needed for employment at a livable wage. For fifty years we have been providing for the basic needs of individuals and families in crisis, by connecting people who have a desire to help with those who need help the most. With facilities in Cobb and Cherokee counties and programs serving 6 additional metro-Atlanta counties, MUST serves around 40,000 individuals each year, over half of them children. Thousands of volunteers support a small staff of about 100, continually helping MUST achieve our mission of “serving our neighbors in need…transforming lives and communities in response to Christ’s call”. Our mission drives the work to create lasting equity of opportunity and better the lives of any individual disadvantaged by poverty. Poverty has many manifestations, but few are sadder than child hunger and malnutrition. A recent report from Feeding America estimates 1 in 6 Georgia children will experience food insecurity in 2021. Food insecurity describes a household’s inability to provide enough food for every person to live an active and healthy life. Our Neighborhood Pantry Program eliminates hunger for at-risk students in local schools, providing food and other necessities, giving them a greater opportunity to grow, learn and thrive. The program currently operates in 34 schools throughout Cobb and Cherokee county, serving a cluster of over 100 schools. We work very closely with school social workers, counselors and staff to identify children and families in crisis. Once a month, including the summer, families can come to their pantry and choose items their families need and enjoy. As an extension of this Program, we have purchased a bus and are currently retrofitting the bus to hit the road in August as a Mobile Pantry. The bus will deliver fresh, nutritious foods in low-income communities and food deserts, where transportation is challenging and families may be unable to come to their pantry. “Thank you for the food boxes - fresh vegetables, eggs and milk. Thank you for all I got from MUST Ministries. You’re great!” - A single mom Many of our clients served through the Neighborhood Pantry Program are living on the margins, often having to choose between buying food or paying a bill. By providing for the basic needs of food and toiletries, our Program improves disparities and encourages equity and inclusion for high-risk families who are experiencing homelessness, households with children abandoned by a parent, special needs families, families with illnesses, families with recent job loss, and other hardships. Providing for their basic human needs validates the beauty and dignity in every man, woman and child we serve, promoting social justice and improving the families’ chances for long-term stability and positive engagement in the community in which they live. “Thank you for all of the people at MUST who help others. There is a lot of hard work to do for this food program. Thank you so much. My husband died last year and it has changed my life.” - A single mom Addressing hunger and poverty provides a foundation for stability and peace in a family, most especially in a child. We often discuss what hunger means for kids from an adult perspective — lower test scores, poorer health, a weakened ability to escape the cycle of poverty. In a short, animated film depicting hunger, No Kid Hungry explored the question of what hunger means to a child. To a young girl, her hunger is not focused on the fact that her grades will suffer, or that she doesn’t have the proper nutrition to grow. To her, hunger is scary and emotional. To her, “hungry is the meanest, ugliest monster you’ve ever seen.” By working with school personnel to identify the children who are struggling due to hunger, our Neighborhood Pantry Program is providing them with nutrition so they can grow, develop and focus on learning instead of thinking about the “monster.” That is beauty personified. “This makes a big difference in their day to day life and the success they have at home, that they know they have food coming from somewhere consistently, especially coming from an organization such as MUST Ministries which is local.” – Neighborhood Pantry volunteer Submitted by: Traci Bensley Write something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. The feature below is brought to you by Little Lambs Foundation, an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about our giving initiatives, please click here. To learn more about the featured organization, please visit their website here.  Championing ChildrenChildren in our community start school in late summer around the last week of August. For thousands of children in the Cache Valley community that comes with a lot of stress and anxiety, especially after the previous year of the COVID-19 pandemic affecting many aspects of their lives. Many of these families have had a huge reduction in finances. Businesses who have had to shut their doors and employers having to lay off employees, reduce their hours or have had to let employees go, more of these families are struggling and need assistance. With these economic challenges families who may have never needed outside help have to ask Little Lambs for assistance in providing school supplies for their children. In Logan City, Utah we have a 26.8% poverty rate (an increase of 1.4% in just the past 12 months) which is almost double the national poverty rate. Many children go to school with worn out clothing, poor hygiene and no school supplies. Little Lambs provides school supply kits, new pajamas and family hygiene kits every year for the past 7 years for low income families, children in foster care and emergency shelters. Sadly the need grows every year. We would like to expand our ability to reach even more children in desperate need. Due to the large multicultural populations that we serve we have families from all over the world that participate in the distribution. No child is turned away no matter race , ethnic origin or religion . Little Lambs is creating beautiful by giving every child the same opportunities as their peers throughout our many different programs to help children in foster care as well as children living in poverty with basic necessities to grow and thrive. Education forms the foundation of any society. For a child to have the proper tools to learn, grow and succeed is fundamental to a child's development. Little Lambs wants every child to feel equal to their peers. Every child should feel empowered to learn. By having the proper tools to succeed children can feel a sense of belonging feeling confident, prepared and ready to succeed. In the previous years we have had teachers, principals and social workers report that by having children come prepared to school and with proper hygiene it has cut down on bullying in their schools. And that my friend is beauty in its most natural form. Here at Little Lambs we see beauty by helping children rise above their economic challenges and thriving in everything they do. All children deserve a champion on their side and that is true beauty. Be beautiful and support a child in your community today ☺ Submitted by: Ted ChalfantWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. The feature below is brought to you by Helping Mamas, an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about our giving initiatives, please click here. To learn more about the featured organization, please visit their website here.  Filling the gap by helping mama Helping Mamas began as a labor of love by two social workers and moms. After 15 years in the social service field, its founders noticed a huge gap in services. This gap was preventing families from being able to move out of poverty, feel confident in their parenting skills, or provide the most basic needs for their children. Prior to Helping Mamas, there was no coordinated effort to collect and distribute essential infant and child items in the metro Atlanta area. Diapers, wipes, car seats, and cribs are critical to the health and safety of children but are often the most expensive items to purchase. These items cannot be purchased through Public Assistance Programs like WIC and SNAP. 3 in 5 moms in the United States have to choose between diapers and food for their children. Without an adequate supply of diapers, children cannot attend early childhood education programs. Without childcare, parents often cannot work. This gap in services keeps families stuck in the diaper gap and unable to see the beauty of being a parent. If a parent is constantly worried about providing for their child’s most needs, they are unable to stop and feel the joy of parenting. Helping Mamas was formed to provide these essential basic needs to families and to ensure that equitable access to these items is protected. The mission of Helping Mamas is to connect helping mamas to mamas in need of help. Our goal is to ensure that all mothers and children with limited financial means have the basic needs they need to live well. We collect and distribute essential infant and child items to organizations that serve women and children in need. We served over 30,000 women and children in 2019 and nearly 65,000 in 2020. We work with over 150 social service agencies and hospitals that serve economically-disadvantaged women and children, and acquired 30 additional partner agencies in 2020. These organizations list basic baby supplies, like diapers and wipes, as their main need. We are also on a mission to provide period products to women and girls who are often vulnerable to miss up to a week of work or school due to a lack of these basic hygiene items. A new study on access to period products has found that this lack of access can also put women and girls at greater risk of depression, anxiety, and further financial barriers. Of those who have experienced period poverty, nearly two-thirds said they lack confidence because of harassment at school and experience high anxiety and depression. We already know that lack of access to menstrual products can keep people from going to school or work, prevent them from accessing opportunities, and perpetuate homelessness, but these new findings show how far-reaching the impacts of period poverty really may be. We recently launched our Mobile Program this year after hosting a successful donation drive campaign in 2020. Our Mobile Program has allowed us to serve thousands more women and children across the state of Georgia thus far. We have been able to host biweekly distribution events since the program launched, reaching Gwinnett, Dekalb, Lowndes, Muscogee, and several other counties! Our team was thrilled to learn of the See Beautiful grant and to be invited to apply! Funding from See Beautiful would allow us to create more ways to collect and distribute period products to the women we serve. Our partner agencies, donors, and volunteers help us see beauty through their service every day. Without them, our work would not be possible. We want to create an efficient and meaningful way for our partner agencies to acquire the products they need to support women and girls in our community. With the support and products they need, we hope they are able to see the beauty in themselves as well. Submitted by: Bemsi Wallang
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See beautiful in yourself.
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