Board of D i rectors

Governance Board

Wayne Vason Chair

Mike Ruberti Vice-chair

Trey ShippTreasurer

Ashley Cummings Secretary

Stan Dawson Executive Director

Clay BethuneJeronia Blue

Pat BrumbaughSaleitha Champion

Susan GriffinTracie Harps

Mary S. HintonBeth Hodges

Livingstone JohnsonRobert Kennedy

Street NalleyPeter Odom

Jonathan SerrieRev. Liz Schellingerhoudt

T u r n i n gP o i n t

April 2015

Crossroads Goes To the People

Crossroads is going mobile. We are delighted to share with you an enhancement to one of our core services – helping our Guests get birth certificates and state ID’s. Since CCM began in the mid 90’s, obtaining legal ID’s has been at the ‘heart’ of the several programs we offer.

Approximately 50% of those who come to Crossroads are in need of this critical service. Why critical? Without legal ID, even with ample education and job skills, one cannot gain employment, secure housing or obtain prescription medications.

This month, CCM will take this essential service to the women and children who reside at the City of Refuge, one of the largest shelters for women and children in Atlanta. Why is this a big deal? Think about it: if you are a parent who happens to be homeless, to make one less trip to yet another agency is a tremendous ‘stress’ reducer. After testing this mobile program out, Crossroads’ goal is to expand to other agencies.

Stan

You can reach Stan at: 404-873-7650 | stan@crossroadsatlanta.org

Stan DawsonExecutive Director

Look for details inside.

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Our Third Annual Saddle Up with Crossroads Derby-themed Gala will be Thursday, April 30, 6-9 pm, at the Foundry at Puritan Mill. We have ter-rific event chairs, John Beane, Peggy Foreman, Jane Long and Mary Perrin, who know how to throw a great par-ty! They have put together a fun and entertaining evening of food, drink,

fellowship and great entertainment featuring the Parson’s Pickers bluegrass band.

If that’s not enough, we have a Silent Auction, headed by Nancy Zintak and Laura Law. Bring your friends and your check book and get ready to bid on some show-stopping items!

Want a word with the man in charge? How about lunch with Mayor Kasim Reed? Want an adventure with a local celebrity? How about a ride with Brad Curry in his restored 1931 Packard? Arts more your vibe? How would you like Paul Murphy’s Franklin Pond String Quartet at your next soiree?

Plan to join us for a fun and important night that will help create new life and hope for Crossroads’ Guests and provide valuable resources to our amazing Crossroads staff.

Wayne VasonBoard Chair

Small businesses key to ending homelessness

The best hope for ending homelessness in Atlanta just might be small businesses, Executive Director Stan Dawson told members of the Buckhead Business Association (BBA) at the City Club of Buckhead this past winter.

“Small businesses represent the best opportunity for a person that has been homeless to be able to get into an employment situation where he or she can begin to work themselves up the food chain,” he said.

It’s all about opportunity, job opportunity.“Once you get caught in this cycle, it’s very easy to hit

bottom quickly,” Stan explained. “We can do everything we do at Crossroads and the other 47 agencies in metro Atlan-ta that work with people who are homeless. We can all give our best effort and we do make a difference in so many lives, but unless employment with a living wage is a viable option this issue will continue to be a struggle for our city.”

Atlanta is a draw to many people seeking professional opportunities. But the city’s status as an economic engine also attracts people at the other end of the economic scale. They are looking for an opportunity to jumpstart their lives.

“If you’re outside Atlanta looking in, particularly if you’re just on the edge of making it in life or if you’ve already become homeless, you look at Atlanta as the promised land,” Dawson told the BBA. “You can’t help but see all these gleaming skyscrapers - and, if you’re poor, that translates into economic opportunity.”

Because many people who are homeless have bad credit, and possibly some-thing on their record, small businesses are often the only employers willing to give someone a second chance. These businesses are looking for people who are anxious to work.

“So, while it is about opportunity, it is also about rela-tionships,” Stan said. “And the folks managing small busi-nesses are more likely to connect with a person applying for a job who also happens to be homeless.”

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Empowering people who are homeless to progress

on the road toward economic and personal self sufficiency.

S U P P O R T I N G C R O S S R O A D S , O N E S A N D W I C H AT A T I M E

by The Rev. Liz Schellingerhoudt

An important part of the baptism liturgy, or ceremony, in the Episcopal Church is the renewal of the baptis-mal covenant by those gathered in the congregation. As we renew our baptismal promises, we proclaim that we will “seek and serve Christ in all persons” that we will “respect the dig-nity of every human being” and that we will “work for justice and peace.”

At St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, when we celebrate the newly baptized whom we have welcomed into the household of God, we immediately put into action the renewal of our own baptismal vows, by making sandwiches for the Guests of Clyde’s Kitchen at Crossroads. Our sandwiches supplement the meals lovingly prepared each week day at CCM – and they help reduce

costs. It is a simple, but powerful way to help support Crossroads.

A “Sandwich Build for Crossroads,” as we call them, is held during our education hour on baptism days, and are intergenerational events. There are no Adult or Children’s education classes those mornings, so everyone is available to attend the Build and help out. The Parish Hall is set up with large tables and we create assembly lines to make sandwiches. We have a small table in the room where the very youngest children participate by

decorating the bagged sandwiches with stickers – some of our homeless guests must be thrilled to get a sandwich with 100 stickers on it!

Since we’ve been hold-ing these builds multiple times each year for the last several years, we have developed a good process and have

been able to cut the cost of a Build significantly. On average, we make about 2,000 sandwiches time. We hear that another church in town has beaten our record, so the challenge is on!

Liz has been the associate for outreach at St. Luke’s and a member of the CCM board for five years. She recently accepted a call to be priest-in-charge at St.

Clare’s Episcopal Church in Blairsville.

Crossroads offers its sincere thanks to all those

who put their hands together to make

sandwiches for our Guests, including longtime supporters (left) from the Jefferson Street Georgia

Power office and volunteers from

MedQuest (right) who filled the kitchen with

smiles as they went about their work!

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Crossroads Community Ministries | 420 Courtland Street NE | Atlanta, GA 30308

N e w L i f e f o r P i a n o i n C l y d e ’ s K i t c h e nby Meghan McCloskey

The story of Crossroads’ new piano was told in a blog post, excerpted here, by Meghan who moved mountains - and the piano - to make this gift happen for Clyde’s Kitchen.

An old Wurlitzer piano sat in a home in the Morningside neighborhood of Atlanta. The piano was faded and one front leg was weak – not the prettiest piano in the world, but it still had plenty of music in it. It once held life and joy, but the two children who had played the piano had grown up and moved away, so it sat silent and in need of a loving hand. After much thought, the owner had decided to donate it to a charitable orga-nization where it could start its next life.

Not many miles away, the people in Clyde’s Kitchen had a wish. They longed for a piano so their guests could have live music regularly and this Christmas, their wish was going to come true.

I arrived at Crossroads to cover the story of the ASO musicians, performing as the Franklin Pond Quartet, who volunteered their time and talent to play at the kitchen. I saw the effect that the music had on those eating there. I talked to Wayne Vason, Crossroads’ board chair, and learned of their desire to have a simple piano; but thus far, no piano had been found.

About the same time I found out about Crossroads’ desire for a piano, I also learned that a neighbor had one that need-ed a new home. I thought it was serendip-itous and as crazy as it seemed, I decided to see if I could somehow get the piano to Crossroads as a Christmas gift.

I contacted Paul Murphy, ASO musician and Franklin Pond member, to see if he could put me in touch with a piano mover. Paul never hesitated. He agreed with me that the piano needed to be moved to Crossroads.

Phone calls were made and days ticked by. We hoped someone would come along and take care of the problem for us – some generous benefactor who would donate the time and services to move the piano. But no benefactor came. Paul and I decid-ed to move the piano ourselves.

Christmas Eve dawned cold and rainy. Most of the piano owner’s family were still asleep when I arrived at 8:30 a.m. with Paul and a couple of friends to load the piano. It had been raining for three days. The front yard looked like the La Brea Tar Pits. Sidewalks were flooded. We four motley movers were no real match for leaden skies and flooded yards. But we had to get this piano to Crossroads.

The piano would have to be carried across the lawn, but cross it we did. The donor’s family were awakened by the clatter and came out to help. Laurel and Hardy did a better job moving a piano than we were doing, but it finally worked. We had simply laughed their way through the disasters that came up, kept moving forward, and hoped for the best.

The joy on Clyde’s face when the piano was delivered was worth all of the stress, all of the worry, and all of the labor. A Christmas wish was fulfilled. People who had no music of their own would now have music.

You can find the original article on the web at: http://saveoursymphonyatlanta.com/2014/12/28/christmas-wish-comes-true/

In early December, the Franklin Pond String Quartet, a group of incredible musicians from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra - Paul Murphy, Jun-Ching Lin, Carolyn Hancock and Daniel Laufer - returned to Crossroads for the 6th straight year to play Christmas music during mealtime in Clyde’s Kitchen. It’s fairly amazing to see the impact that their beautiful music has on our Guests. (To see the video about their visit, you can go to: https://vimeo.com/115520653)

T H E G I F T O F M U S I C

Clyde, with Megan and Paul, and the new piano.