Everything Under The Sun: Helping One Family At A Time

Monday, October 24, 2016

Helping One Family At A Time

Available on the sales racks at Ups & Downs Thrift Store.

There's an area in Alabama, known as The Shoals. It's located in the northwestern corner of the Stated, defining a grouping of four cities. It's also an area that struggles with high levels of poverty. It can certainly be notable when someone raised in this particular area makes it, becomes a success.

That actually describes the life trajectory of Melissa Hargett, a girl from The Shoals, who grew up and made a name for herself in business. But, as many who grow up in a particular area of this vast United States, she was marked by her childhood and had family ties to the area.

So, yes, indeed, this successful young woman with a career in business and internet marketing found herself headed back to her childhood origins to care for her mother, who had become ill. But she was also a different young woman than the one who had departed, a woman with skills, a knowledge of the area, and compassion in her heart. Not only did she come to care for her mother, but also to care for her community, helping families who are struggling, get that all-important leg up, that small assistance needed to get over a hurdle of crisis.

So, Melissa Hargett started the SHOALS AREA FAMILIES FOUNDATION (SAF), which is designed to help local families in financial crisis temporarily to meet their expenses. When families need assistance with a bill, they can apply for that assistance, and if the Foundation has the funds, it pay the bill. In return, those families become involved in the "give back program".

Here's how the "give back" works. For every $100 the program pays, families are required to work for four hours in the SAF thrift store. As the families fulfill their commitments, SAF gets to know them better and finds out more about their needs. For instance, many adults have not received a high school diploma or GED. In order to fill in some of the gaps, SAF teaches their families about job interview skills, budgeting, how to apply for jobs, and other skills. In a sense, SAF helps one family at a time rise out of poverty through developing life skills.

As Melissa said, "Our goal is to help them complete an education, teach them new skill sets, and to empower them to have a better life. SAF wants to do more than just help with a bill...we want to break the cycle of impoverishment." It's a definite plus when the leader providing assistance is helping families to take the pathways that saw her out of poverty just a few years previously.

As the sign says, purchases from the Thrift Store support assistance to SAF families.

As part of their programming, SAF runs and accepts donations for their thrift store, Ups & Downs Thrift Store. This is the arm where the families who receive assistance pay back what they receive in hours worked. A nice side benefit is that the family adults can learn on-the-job skills in the various careers involved in running and maintaining that store.