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Local ministry helping Katrina victims adjust

By BEN NELMS
bnelms@TheCitizen.com

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is still being felt in Southwest Fulton. One of the many organizations assisting in the effort to bring relief to those displaced by nature’s devastation is South Fulton Business & Empowerment Center in Union City, an outreach ministry of Open Word Christian Ministries in Fairburn.

Center Manager Barbara Stallings said she has identified more than 300 Gulf Coast residents staying in homes and hotels in the immediate area. Those numbers increase dramatically when hotels, motels, private homes and other types of housing accommodations across the entire South Fulton region are considered. Estimates put the number of displaced people staying in the College Park area and west to Fairburn at close to 10,000, Stallings said.

Ordinarily a business start-up ministry, South Fulton Business & Empowerment added to its ministry once Katrina did her damage. The center initially provided food, clothing, toiletries and contact assistance to local, state and federal relief agencies and coordinated other churches, businesses and organizations participating in the relief effort.

“At first we went to hotels to find those people that fell through the cracks,” Stallings explained.

As time passes the center’s outreach is modified to meet current needs, said Stallings. In the past week, the center has fed 30 families, placed individuals and families in apartments or homes, used donated funds to purchase gas cards for survivors and distributed underwear donated by Wal-Mart.

“We were working with apartment complexes to see if they would open up some of their apartments for survivors. And they agreed to. That’s what I’m excited about,” Stallings said, understanding that finding housing for people who cannot return to their homes is a major challenge. “Today, the big thing is helping people find housing and jobs.”

The center is currently working on placing 10 more families in apartments and working with an additional 25-30 on a variety of levels to meet a variety of needs, Stallings said. As a Community Development Corporation, center staff are also working career centers, churches and referral services to help find jobs for those survivors that want to stay in the Atlanta area.

An upcoming center project involves providing extended emotional and spiritual assistance once survivors are more settled, said Stallings. Both South Fulton Business & Empowerment and Open Word will provide Life Coach counseling and other services to help meet the non-physical needs that come with being displaced, she said.

“Stress among many of the survivors is significant,” Stallings said. “Stress will hit some people hard, so we want to be able to help them deal with that along with being in a new town, in a new life with everything happening so fast.”

South Fulton Business & Empowerment Center is located in Suite 1A at 6810 Shannon Parkway in the Shannon Walk Shopping Center behind Arby’s on Ga. Highway 138 and directly adjacent to the IHOP Restaurant parking lot. The contact number is 770-964-5744.

Whether locally, regionally or nationally, events and circumstances change. But the long reach of Open Word and it’s South Fulton center, said Stallings, will not.

“Open Word and South Fulton Business & Empowerment are here for the long haul,” she said. “When the news coverage shifts to other things we will still be here.”